THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 


By 


G.  VERNON  BENNETT,  A.M.,  J.D. 

Gty  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Pomona,  Cal. 
Lecturer  in  Education,  University  of  Southern  California. 


BALTIMORE 

WARWICK  &  YORK,  Inc. 
1919 


Copyrizht.  1919 
By  WARWICK  A  YORK,  I»c. 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CATTFORNlA 
SANTA  BARBARA 

PREFACE 

The  author  is  frank  to  admit  that  this  book  is  not  a  com- 
plete treatise  on  the  junior  high  school.  To  write  such  a 
treatise  there  would  have  to  be  available  a  vast  mass  of  facts, 
statistics, , and  experimental  data  about  the  subject.  The 
junior  high  school  is  too  new  an  institution  to  have  had  time 
and  opportunity  for  the  accumulation  of  such  scientific  ma- 
terial. There  has  been  an  insistent  demand  for  a  reorganiza- 
tion of  our  school  system.  It  did  not  seem  as  if  those  de- 
mands could  be  met  under  the  8-4  plan  of  grouping  grades. 
There  arose — in  response  to  the  demand — a  new  institution, 
the  junior  high  school,  created  to  carry  out  the  reorgan- 
ization. 

It  was  not  as  if  an  old  institution  had  been  asked  to  do 
new  work.  Not  at  all.  It  was  pretty  well  decided  before- 
hand what  was  needed  to  be  done.  The  problem  was,  can 
the  present  organizations  do  the  things  needed  ?  Some  edu- 
cators said,  yes.  Others  said,  no,  and  proceeded  to  create  a 
new  school  to  do  the  work.  Since  then  Professor  Johnston's 
statement  that  "the  junior  high  school  movement  is  sweep- 
ing the  country"  has  become  literally  true. 

There  have  been  some  precedents  in  Europe  and  in  this 
country  for  the  creation  of  this  school.  These  fore-runners 
are  briefly  described  by  the  author.  It  is  not  pretended,  how- 
ever, that  these  were  real  junior  high  schools. 

This  book  is  put  forth  as  a  guide  for  the  study  of  the 
junior  high  school  movement.  It  is  full  of  suggestions,  full 
of  arguments,  full  of  enthusiastic  hopes.  It  is  put  forth  as 
a  pathfinder.  The  author  has  necessarily  drawn  largely  on 
his  personal  observations  in  his  own  schools  at  'Pomona ;  but 


VIII  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

he  has  also  had  the  pleasure  of  visiting  .the  junior  high 
schools  in  Los  Angeles,  Berkeley,  Detroit,  Houston,  and  Salt 
Lake  City. 

The  author  wishes  to  thank  the  many  superintendents  who 
have  responded  to  his  requests  for  information.  He  wishes 
especially  to  thank  Dr.  David  P.  Barrows,  formerly  Dean  of 
the  Faculties  of  the  University  of  California,  now  Major, 
Chief  of  the  Intelligence  Department,  Philippine  Islands, 
and  'Prof.  E.  E.  Lewis  and  Prof.  T.  H.  Briggs,  of  Teachers' 
College,  Columbia,  for  valuable  suggestions,  criticism  and 
inspiration.  For  faults  in  the  book  the  author  wishes  himself 
solely  and  alone  to  be  held  responsible. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PACK 

CHAPTER  ONE — THE  PROBLEMS  AND  THE  SOLUTION i 

1.  Definition    of    junior    high    school i 

2.  The  problems 3 

A.  Leakage  from  school 3 

B.  Selecting   the   wrong   vocation 4 

C.  Delayed  entrance  into  skilled  vocations 5 

D.  Evils  growing  out  of  adolescence 6 

3.  Preventing  leakage  by  the  junior  high  school 7 

4.  Vocation  selection  through  the  junior  high  school 14 

5.  Shortening  the  preparation  for  skilled  occupations 17 

6.  Adapting  education  to  the  needs  of  adolescence 20 

A.  Education   of   boys 20 

B.  Education    of    girls 23 

CHAPTER  Two — HISTORY  OP  THE  MOVEMENT 26 

1 .  Foreign  systems 26 

2.  Various  plans  of  grouping  grades 29 

3.  Supt  Bunker  and  the  Berkeley  plan 33 

4.  The  Los  Angeles  plan 35 

5.  Work  of  the  National  Education  Association 36 

6.  The  junior  high  school  throughout  the  country 38 

7.  Varying   plans   in   operation 40 

CHAPTER  THREE — OBJECTIONS  TO  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ANSWERED  43 

r.  The  same  results  obtainable  under  the  old  plan 43 

2.  Greater  distance  of   pupils   from   school 46 

3.  Unfavorable  effect  upon  elementary  teachers 48 

4.  Difficulty  of  obtaining  college-trained  teachers 50 

5.  Difficulty  of  inducing  ninth  grade  pupils  to  attend  junior 
high    school S3 

6.  Additional  expense  for  buildings,  grounds,  and  equipment  54 

7.  Conservatism   of   the   public 56 

CHAPTER  FOUR — EFFECT  OF  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  MOVEMENT 

UPON  THE  ELEMENTARY  GRADES 58 

1.  Foundational  subjects  covered  in  grades  I-VI 58 

2.  Kindergarten    preparation    required 60 

3.  School  attendance  better  enforced 62 

4.  An  all-year  session 64 

5.  Excellent  teachers  employed 66 

6.  Teaching  how  to  study 68 

ix 


X  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

PAGE 

7.  Specific  changes  in  the  elementary  courses 70 

8.  Non-essentials   in   particular   subjects   eliminated 73 

Summary    74 

CHAPTER  FIVE — COURSES  OF  STUDY 76 

1.  Preliminary  considerations 77 

2.  Physical  education 80 

3.  Manual  and  sense  training 84 

4.  English 86 

5.  Foreign  languages 90 

6.  Mathematics    • 92 

CHAPTER  Six — COURSES  OF  STUDY,  CONTINUED 96 

1.  History  and  politics 96 

2.  The   sciences 08 

3.  Culture  subj  ects . .  101 

4.  Vocational  subjects 108 

CHAPTER  SEVEN — PRINCIPAL  AND  TEACHERS 114 

1.  Manning    the    junior    high    school 114 

2.  The    principal 115 

3.  The  teachers 117 

4.  College-trained    vs.    normal-trained    teachers 118 

5.  A  teachers  college  for  junior  high  school  teachers 120 

6.  An  organization  of  junior  high  school  teachers 123 

7.  Literature  on  the  junior  high  school 125 

8.  Heads  of  departments 128 

CHAPTER  EIGHT — TEACHING  IN  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 131 

1.  Aims   and   purposes 131 

2.  The  teacher 132 

3.  The  class-room 135 

4.  High  school  textbooks  not  adapted  to  junior  high  school. .  138 

5.  Certain  qualities  developed  in  pupils 141 

A.  Acquisition  of  habits  of  industry 141 

B.  Development  of   sense  perception 142 

C.  Acquisition    of    motor    skill 142 

D.  Health  and  development 143 

E.  Acquisition   of    information 143 

F.  Reasoning,  retentiveness,  alertness 144 

G.  Skill   in   expression 145 


TABLE  OF   CONTENTS  XI 

PAGE 

H.  A  liking   for   wholesome   pleasures 145 

I.  Purposefulness   145 

6.  The   method   of  the   recitation  period 146 

CHAPTER  NINE — ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  150 

1.  The  faculty 150 

2.  Supervision    152 

3.  Organization   of   the    schedule 154 

4.  Clerical   work 155 

5.  Student    organizations    and    activities 158 

6.  Accessories  of  teaching 160 

7.  School  interruptions  and  exercises 162 

8.  Moral   guidance 164 

CHAPTER  TEN — RELATION  TO  SENIOR  HIGH  AND  JUNIOR  COLLEGE  167 

1.  The  senior  high  school  and  the  tenth  grade 167 

2.  The     upper     secondary     school's     tendency     to     become 
college-like  168 

3.  Nature  of  the  people's  college 170 

4.  Effect  of  the  people's  college  upon  the  junior  high  school 
curriculum   174 

5.  Effect  of  the  people's  college  upon  the  junior  high  schools 

in   cities    175 

6.  Relation    of    people's    college    to    junior    high    schools 
outside  of  cities 177 

CHAPTER  ELEVEN — AN  IDEAL  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 181 

1.  The  city 181 

2.  Board  of   education 182 

3.  The    superintendent 183 

4.  The  grounds 185 

5.  The  pupils   186 

6.  The  buildings 187 

7.  Accessories   of  teaching 188 

8.  The  faculty 189 

9.  Conclusion :  Results    191 

APPENDIX.      JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  COURSES  OF  STUDY 195 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  .                                         208 


CHAPTER  ONE 

THE  PROBLEMS  AND  THE  SOLUTION 

1.  Definition  of  Junior  High  School  and  Outline  of 
the  Subject:  A  junior  high  school  in  the  fullest  sense  in 
which  it  is  commonly  used  has  the  following  characteristics : 

(a)  It  is  a  separate  educational  institution,  with  a  dis- 
tinct organization  and  corps  of  officers  and  teachers. 

(b)  It  embraces  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  grades  (or 
years  of  work)  and  sometimes  the  tenth. 

(c)  It  has    a    curriculum    in    the    seventh    and    eighth 
grades  enriched  by  the  presence  of  several  high  school  sub- 
jects or  by  the  broadening,  culturizing  or  vocationalizing  of 
the  so-called  common  branches. 

(d)  It   promotes   by   subject   even   in   the   seventh   and 
eighth  grades. 

(e)  It  permits  and  encourages  a  differentiation  of  courses 
for  the  different  pupils. 

It  is  with  the  above  meaning  that  the  term  will  be  used 
in 'this  book.  Many  schools  that  fall  short  of  all  these  char- 
acteristics by  one  point  are  called  junior  high  schools.  But 
in  practically  all  cities  where  the  movement  for  establishing 
these  schools  has  gotten  well  under  way,  the  ideal  toward 
which  the  authorities  are  working  embraces  all  of  these 
points. 

In  California  the  term  originally  used  was  "intermediate 
high  school,"  later  shortened  to  "intermediate  school,"  but 
the  term  "junior  high  school"  is  rapidly  supplanting  the 
others.  In  New  York  City  the  "intermjediate  school"  is  not 
properly  a  secondary  school,  although  it  is  tending  to  become 
such. 

i 


2  THE   JUNIOR    HIGH    SCHOOL 

The  reader  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  junior  high  school 
movement  is  so  new  and  is  undergoing  so  many  modifica- 
tions and  improvements  that  what  is  true  of  it  this  year 
may  fall  far  short  of  the  truth  next  year. 

The  subject  of  the  junior  high  school  will  be  treated 
first  as  an  educational  movement,  and  second  as  an  institu- 
tion. In  the  first  division  we  shall  treat,  in  this  chapter,  the 
causes  leading  to  the  birth  of  the  movement;  in  the  second 
chapter,  the  history  of  the  movement ;  in  the  third  chapter, 
the  objections  raised  to  the  creation  of  a  junior  high  school; 
in  the  fourth  chapter,  the  ascertained  and  prospective  effects 
of  the  movement  upon  the  elementary  school. 

Jn  the  second  division — the  school  as  an  institution — we 
shall  devote  chapters  v  and  vi  to  the  curriculum  and 
courses  of  study;  chapter  vil  to  the  preparation,  selection 
and  organization  of  faculties ;  chapter  vm  to  problems  of 
teaching;  chapter  ix  to  administration;  chapter  x  to  the 
relation  of  the  junior  high  school  as  an  institution  to  the 
senior  high  school ;  and  chapter  xi  to  the  author's  conception 
of  an  ideal  environment,  housing,  equipment,  and  officering 
(of  a  junior  high  school. 

In  this  chapter  we  shall  take  up  the  causes  that  produced 
the  junior  high  school  movement.  We  shall  find  that  society 
has  made  certain  demands  on  the  public  schools  with  which 
the  school  system  found  it  impossible  under  the  8-4  organ- 
ization successfully  to  cope.  The  junior  high  school  came 
into  existence  to  meet  these  demands.  The  four  most 
important  demands  were:  (i)  That  the  enormous  leakage 
from  school  in  the  seventh,  eighth,  ninth  and  tenth  grades 
cease ;  (2)  That  an  effort  be  made  to  destroy  the  influences 
•of  schools  which  tend  to  send  young  men  and  women  into 
unsuitable  and  worthless  vocations  and  that  a  positive  effort 
'be  made  to  guide  them  into  suitable  and  worthy  occupa- 


THE   PROBLEM    Of   THE   SOLUTION  3 

tions;  (3)  That  the  modern  tendency  to  lengthen  the  period 
of  preparation  for  skilled  vocations  be  checked  and  some 
method  be  found  for  shortening  the  period  so  that  men  may 
become  self-supporting  and  society-supporting  at  an  earlier 
age;  and,  finally  (4)  That  the  school  system  check  the 
physical,  mental  and  moral  evils  that  accompany  and  grow 
out  of  adolescence. 

After  showing  how  bad  were  the  conditions  that  caused 
these  demands  to  be  made,  we  shall  proceed  to  explain  how 
these  demands  are  being  met  by  the  junior  high  school. 

2.  The  Problems.  A.  Leakage  in  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades  and  in  high  school.  The  records  in  Los 
Angeles  City,  where  compulsory  attendance  is  more  strictly 
enforced  than  in  most  cities,  show  that  in  the  years  1896  to 
1911,  inclusive,  there  was  an  average  dropping  out,  as  fol- 
lows :  From  the  fifth  grade,  18  per  cent  of  those  registered 
in  that  grade ;  from  the  sixth  grade,  20  per  cent ;  from  the 
seventh,  30  per  cent;  from  the  eighth,  17  per  cent.  As  the 
eighth  was  the  last  grade  of  the  elementary  school,  the 
dropping  out  after  graduation  would  greatly  increase  the 
percentage  above  the  17  per  cent  here  recorded.  The  law 
required  children  to  attend  school  up  to  the  fifteenth  birth- 
day ;  but  there  was  a  large  number  of  Mexican  children  who 
reached  that  age  in  the  fifth  'and  sixth  grades.  The  statistics 
of  Los  Angeles  do  not  show  how  many  dropped  out  at  the 
end  of  the  eighth  grade;  but  in  Grand  Rapids  24  per  cent 
of  eighth-grade  graduates  failed  to  enter  the  ninth  grade, 
and  in  Evansville,  Indiana,  44  per  cent.  In  the  Franklin 
School  of  Berkeley,  California,  59  per  cent  of  eighth-grade 
graduates  did  not  enter  high  school. 

Thorndike's  statistics  show  that  for  the  country  in  gen- 
eral, out  of  every  100  pupils  finishing  the  sixth  grade  only 


4  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

79  finish  the  seventh  and  only  59  finish  the  eighth.  Ayres' 
figures  show  79  and  57,  respectively. 

As  to  leakage  in  high  school,  the  record  in  Cincinnati 
showed  that  of  the  1766  pupils  enrolled  in  the  ninth  grade 
in  1912-13,  only  1128  enrolled  in  the  tenth  grade  the  next 
year,  and  714  in  the  eleventh  grade  in  the  following  year. 
This  shows  a  loss  of  36.1  per  cent  the  first  year  and  23.5 
per  cent  the  second  year.  The  leakage  in  the  tenth  grade, 
however,  was  36.7  per  cent  of  those  that  entered  it.  The 
statistics  of  Los  Angeles  from  1896  to  1911  show  that  54 
per  cent  of  those  who  entered  the  high  school  dropped  out 
before  the  end  of  the  first  year ;  and  of  those  who  remained 
to  take  up  the  tenth  grade,  45  per  cent  dropped  out  before 
the  end  of  the  year.  The  Minneapolis  report  showed  similar 
results. 

Thorndike's  figures  for  the  entire  country  show  that 
between  the  end  of  the  eighth  year  and  the  end  of  the  ninth, 
out  of  every  100  pupils  33  dropped  out,  and  during  the  next 
year  25  more  dropped  out.  Ayres'  statistics  show  that  out 
•of  every  100  graduates  of  the  eighth  grade  22  dropped  out 
fin. the  ninth  grade  and  42  in  the  tenth.  While  these  accounts 
.differ  in  detail,  in  final  result  they  agree  that  about  60  per 
cent  of  elemientary-school  graduates  fail  to  reach  the  third 
year  of  high  school. 

B.  Selecting  the  wrong  vocation  in  life.  Another 
social  problem  that  presses  for  solution  is  that  of  getting 
each  person  into  the  occupation  that  will  serve  best  his  own 
interests  and  those  of  society.  The  good  of  both  the  indi- 
vidual and  of  society  requires  that  boys  and  girls  find  at  a 
reasonably  early  age  the  vocation  for  which  they  are  best 
adapted  and  that  all  preparation  possible  be  made  for  that 
.occupation. 

There  is  a  large  number  of  failures  in  business  attributable 


THE    PROBLEMS    AND   THE    SOLUTION  5 

to  the  unfitness  of  the  employer  and  the  employees  for 
carrying  on  that  business.  In  1915  there  were  22,156  such 
business  failures  in  this  country.  There  are  other  contribu- 
tory causes,  of  course,  but  un fitness  stands  out  as  a  principal 
one.  The  vast  armies  of  idle  poor  that  hang  about  city 
employment  offices  testify  to  the  failures  in  fitting  for  the 
right  employment.  Competent  authorities  state  that  a  large 
proportion  of  men  change  their  occupations  two  or  three 
times  before  they  get  into  the  right  ones.  If  a  man  does  not 
decide  upon  his  vocation  until  he  reaches  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  of  age,  he  has  only  natural  aptitude  to  rely  on ; 
he  has  not  time  then  to  prepare  himself  adequately  for  an 
occupation. 

Not  only  is  the  misfit  unsuccessful  in  the  occupation  into 
which  he  is  driven,  but  he  finds  it  irksome.  He  is  unhappy 
in  his  work.  This  unhappiness  and  poor  remuneration  affect 
his  family  relationship,  disturbing  its  equilibrium  and  bring- 
ing about  pessimism  and  distress.  Society  also  finds  itself 
cheated  out  of  what  it  expects  and  demands  of  each  indi- 
vidual. It  may  even  have  to  support  the  individual  or  his 
family  and  is  thereby  burdened  with  pathological  and  cura- 
tive measures — a  condition  that  prevents  the  carrying  out 
of  its  creative  and  developmental  program.  Society  feels 
the  loss  of  such  a  man's  monetary  contribution  to  its 
progress. 

C.  Delayed  entrance  into  skilled  vocations.  We 
hear  in  these  days  a  constant  complaint  of  the  system  of 
schooling  that  prevents  young  men  from  getting  started  in 
their  professions  or  occupations  until  late  in  their  twenties. 
With  twelve  years  for  public  education,  four  for  college, 
and  three  for  professional  training  in  the  university,  a  man 
finds  himself  ready  to  begin  work  at  twenty-five  years  of 
age  if  he  has  been  fortunate.  If,  however,  he  failed  to  pass 


6  THE   JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

some  lower  grade;  if  his  parents  moved  from  one  state  to 
another,  or  from  one  city  to  another,  entailing  a  loss  of  a 
grade;  if  he  did  not  enter  school  until  he  was  seven  years 
old;  or  if  sickness  or  other  causes  interrupted  his  steady 
advance  in  school,  he  will  not  finish  his  university  work  until 
he  is  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven.  It  takes  so  long  to  get  a 
start  in  the  professions  or  in  business,  that  often  he  is  well 
past  thirty  before  he  finds  himself  self-supporting.  All 
these  things  tend  to  delay  marriage  to  middle  age,  and 
sometimes  entirely  prevent  it.  If,  by  misfortune,  the  young 
man  should  marry  in  his  early  twenties,  he  is  condemned  to 
such  cruel  privations  and  struggles  that  his  chances  for  suc- 
cess are  slim. 

This  is  true  not  only  in  the  professions,  but  equally  so  in 
many  lines  of  agriculture.  Orchards  require  several  years 
to  mature,  and  farms  cannot  be  stocked  short  of  three  or 
four  years.  If  the  young  man  has  neither  the  land  nor  the 
capital  to  start  farming  as  soon  as  he  is  graduated  from  the 
university,  he  will  find  that  he  must  wait  several  years 
longer  before  his  education  will  yield  him  any  permanent 
income.  Most  young  men,  foreseeing  this  long  delay,  go 
directly  into  agriculture  without  taking  a  university  course 
at  all. 

D.  Evils  growing  out  of  adolescence.  These  are  of 
three  kinds  though  closely  inter-related.  The  physical  evils 
result  from  (a)  arrested  development,  caused  by  some 
disease,  from  overstudy,  fright,  etc. ;  (b)  perverted  sex 
habits,  as  self-abuse;  (c)  habits  arising  out  of  the  adoles- 
cent's sudden  induction  into  manhood  which  gives  him  the 
adult's  desires  and  freedom  to  satisfy  them  but  not  the 
adult's  restraining  will  power,  such  as  the  habit  of  keeping 
late  hours,  smoking,  chewing  tobacco,  drinking  liquor,  eat- 
ing rapidly,  and  choosing  irregular  diet;  (d)  a  reaching  and 


THE   PROBLEMS    AND  THE   SOLUTION  7 

straining  to  do  things  that  their  elders  do,  without  proper 
judgment,  such  as  running  endurance  races;  and  (e)  im- 
proper actions  by  girls  at  delicate  bodily  periods  and  neglect 
of  bodily  needs  through  a  prudish  sense  of  modesty. 

There  are  several  mental  evils  that  grow  out  of  adoles- 
cence: (a)  Arrested  mental  development  caused  by  the 
physical  changes  incident  to  adolescence  or  caused  by  worry 
over  those  changes;  (b)  mental  weakness  caused  by  exces- 
sive indulgence  in  sex  thoughts  and  habits;  (c)  habits  aris- 
ing out  of  the  adolescent's  sudden  induction  into  manhood 
which  gives  him  freedom  to  do  much  as  he  pleases,  such 
habits  as  idleness,  irregularity  in  work,  fickleness,  weakness 
of  will;  (d)  mental  stagnation  resulting  from  the  youth's 
leaving  school  and  entering  unskilled  work;  (e)  the  "big- 
head,"  contempt  for  the  opinions  of  others,  unwillingness  to 
learn,  a  feeling  of  "knowing  it  all." 

The  moral  evils  are  more  definite  and  far-reaching.  Many 
writers  insist  that  they  are  actually  worse  now  than  ever 
before  and  are  steadily  getting  worse.  The  following  are 
some  of  those  moral  evils  arising  directly  from  adolescence : 
(a)  Lying  to  parents  and  weaving  webs  of  deceit;  (b)  dis- 
obedience to  parents  and  general  outlawry  against  the 
home;  (c)  playing  "hookey"  from  school,  cutting  classes, 
chafing  against  restraints  of  any  kind;  (d)  habits  arising 
out  of  the  freedom  and  independence  that  come  with  adoles- 
cence, such  as  the  reading  of  trashy  novels,  frequenting  bad 
moving  picture  houses,  smoking,  gambling,  drinking,  stay- 
ing out  late  at  night,  indulging  in  excessive  social  affairs, 
stealing  to  meet  the  unusual  need  for  spending  money;  (e) 
perverted  sex  habits  (ranging  from  mere  "looseness"  of 
actions  to  downright  "shamelessness"). 

3.  Preventing  Leakage  by  the  junior  high  school. 
The  leakage  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  is  attributed 
to  several  causes,  of  which  dislike  for  school  as  taught  under 


8  THE  JUNIOR    HIGH    SCHOOL 

the  old  plan  is  the  principal  one.  This  dislike  for  school 
arose  from  the  fact  that  the  pupils  were  tired  of  going  over 
and  over  the  common-school  studies,  that  they  disliked  to 
associate  with  the  little  children  who  had  no  community  of 
interest  with  them,  and  that  they  wanted  some  real,  telling 
work  to  do,  work  which  was  to  be  found  only  outside  the 
walls  of  school.  There  were,  of  course,  other  contributing 
causes.  Many  children  had  to  go  to  work  to  help  support 
their  families,  and  they  felt  that  the  longer  they  stayed  in 
the  old-time  school  the  less  fit  they  were  for  taking  the 
small  jobs  which  children  can  readily  secure. 

This  leakage  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  the  junior 
high  schools  were  organized  to  check.  They  plan  to  reduce 
the  dropping  out  of  school  by  keeping  children  interested  in 
school  work.  The  common  branches,  if  taught  at  all  in 
these  two  grades,  are  to  be  so  effectively  changed  in  nature 
that  the  pupils  will  not  recognize  in  them  their  old  enemies. 
If  arithmetic  appears  at  all,  it  is  as  elementary  accounts, 
bookkeeping  or  commercial  arithmetic.  If  it  is  served  to 
them  in  this  way,  the  boys  and  girls  enjoy  the  feast.  Other 
subjects  are  added — subjects  that  appeal  to  the  ambition  of 
the  young  people.  The  two  grades  are  taken  from  the 
grammar  school  building  and  housed  in  new  quarters  where 
the  pupils  will  have  only  children  of  their  own  ages  or  older 
children  to  associate  with.  The  real,  telling  work  of  the  big 
outside  world  is  brought  into  these  new  schools,  and  the 
youngsters  have  their  legitimate  ambitions  satisfied  in  school 
work.  Finally,  the  junior  high  schools  are  being  so  con- 
ducted as  to  make  it  possible  for  boys  to  help  the  parents,  as 
in  Los  Angeles,  either  by  part-time  work  in  stores  or  by 
selling  the  product  of  their  manual  training  or  school-gar- 
dening work. 

We  have  available  some  statistical  records  of  the  influence 


THE   PROBLEMS    AND  THE   SOLUTION  9 

of  the  junior  high  school  in  retaining  pupils  in  school. 
Grand  Rapids,  Michigan,  is  a  city  in  which  school  attend- 
ance was  kept  up  to  a  very  high  standard  even  before  the 
institution  of  the  junior  high  school.  The  following  statis- 
tics are  taken  from  an  article  by  Paul  C.  Stetson  in  the 
April,  1918,  SCHOOL  REVIEW,  but  arranged  by  the  author  so 
as  to  show  the  facts  which  he  wishes  to  bring  out.  His 
figures  show  that  the  elementary  school  enrollment  remained 
practically  stationary  from  1908  to  1916,  the  increase  being 
almost  entirely  in  grades  VIII  to  XII,  inclusive.  He 
states  that  the  junior  high  schools  were  established  in  1912. 
Not  all  seventh  and  eighth  grade  pupils  were  at  once 
assigned  to  the  junior  high  schools.  The  enrollment  in  the 
seventh  grade  remained  about  the  same  until  1913,  when  it 
began  to  grow  by  leaps  and  bounds  after  feeling  the  effects 
of  the  junior  high  school  upon  it.  The  eighth  grade  had 
hardly  been  able  to  hold  its  own  until  1914,  when  the  effect 
of  the  junior  high  school  began  to  be  felt.  Here  are  the 
figures.  We  have  underlined  the  figures  where  the  junior 
high  school's  influence  is  felt. 

Seventh  Grade    Eighth  Grade 

1908    1091  946 

1909 1087 

1910    1063 

1911    1161 

1912    1082  1072 

1913    1262 


1914   1188  1140 


1272 


1916    1346  1296 

The  next  case  to  which  we  wish  to    refer    is     that    of 
Macomb,  Illinois,  as  reported  by    Superintendent    V.    L, 


IO  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH   SCHOOL 

Margun.  In  this  city  the  junior  high  school  was  established 
in  1915-16,  the  results  showing  in  1916-17  in  the  seventh 
grade.  The  enrollment  in  the  seventh  grade  had  been  at  a 
standstill  while  the  population  of  the  city  had  been  steadily 
increasing — as  shown  by  the  enrollment  in  grades  I  to  VI. 
The  following  are  the  results: 

Grades  I  to  VI    Grade  VII 

1913    731  83 

1914   745  82 

1915    745  82 

1916   748  81 

1917   743  I23 

In  order  to  show  how  the  junior  high  school  is  to  solve 
the  problem  of  the  great  mortality  in  high  school,  we  must 
be  able  to  say  what  is  the  cause  of  the  dropping  out 
in  the  first  and  second  years  of  high  school.  The  following 
seem  to  be  the  most  usual  and  best  known:  (i)  The  de- 
partmental system  is  confusing  to  the  new  pupils.  (2)  High 
school  lessons  are  so  much  harder  than  those  of  the  grade 
school  that  failures  are  far  more  frequent.  Lessons 
are  longer  and  require  much  home  study.  (3)  High  school 
teachers  are  thought  to  be  less  sympathetic — in  fact, 
cold  and  indifferent  to  the  success  or  failure  of  students. 
(4)  Pupils  are  thrown  immediately  upon  their  own  responsi- 
bility in  the  preparation  of  their  work ;  they  neglect,  stumble, 
flounder,  become  discouraged,  drop  out.  (5)  It  seems  a 
long  time  before  they  will  finish — four  years — therefore 
they  lose  heart.  (6)  The  desire  is  so  strong  in  the  breast  of 
the  adolescent  really  to  "do"  something,  that  cultural  studies 
seem  a  waste  of  time. 

At  first  the  student  likes  the  change  from  grades  to  high 
school.  There  is  greater  freedom,  greater  school  spirit  and 
activity,  everything  is  new,  the  buildings  and  equipment  are 


THE;  PROBLEMS  AND  THE  SOLUTION  n 

fascinating,  there  is  a  thrill  of  joy  about  the  whole  institu- 
tion. If  the  pupils  had  no  work  to  do  and  could  dabble  in 
the  things  that  they  like,  their  interest  would  not  flag.  The 
days  would  be  one  long  dream  of  pleasure !  But,  alas  and 
alack,  the  state  does  not  support  costly  institutions  merely  to 
amuse  young  people  in  their  "teens."  The  evil  days  speed 
on  apace ;  there  comes  a  time  of  reckoning  about  the  end  of 
the  first  quarter,  when  the  report  cards  show  low  grades  and 
failures.  The  pupil  feels  that  he  has  been  mistreated,  that 
the  lessons  were  too  hard  and  too  long,  that  the  teacher 
takes  little  interest  in  the  freshmen  and  in  him  in  particular, 
that  he  should  have  been  warned  that  he  was  failing,  that 
the  teacher  did  not  give  him  help,  that  he  got  a  late  or  wrong 
start  through  no  fault  of  his  own,  that  he  should  have  been 
made  to  study  and  not  allowed  to  drift.  Finally,  he  con- 
cludes that  four  years  spent  in  hard  work  upon  senseless 
studies  are  a  waste  of  time  for  him,  he  cuts  classes,  stays  out 
of  school  a  day  or  two  at  a  time,  sulks  while  in  school, 
answers  the  teacher's  questions  with  an  abused  "I  dunno," 
which  implies  that  no  person  in  his  right  mind  could  know 
anything  about  such  meaningless  stuff  as  is  found  in  text- 
books, and  finally  leaves  school. 

The  junior  high  school  is  undertaking  to  prevent  this 
enormous  dropping  out  of  pupils  in  the  ninth  and  tenth 
grades  by  bridging  the  chasm  through  gradual  department- 
alization, by  introducing  new  and  difficult  studies  gradually, 
by  spreading  subjects  over  a  longer  period  so  that  each 
lesson  will  be  short  enough  to  be  prepared  under  the  school 
roof,  by  employing  sympathetic  teachers  of  boys  and  girls, 
by  slowly  extending  the  individual  responsibility  of  the 
youth,  by  cutting  in  two  the  long  period  of  time  required 
to  finish  school,  so  that  graduation  is  not  so  far  in  the  future^, 
and  by  giving  the  adolescent  work  that  will  appeal  to  his, 
interests  and  ambitions. 


12  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

Departmentalization  should  begin  gradually  and  in  a 
school  where  the  pupil  and  not  the  subject  is  the  prime  con- 
sideration of  the  teachers.  The  first  year  of  high  school  is 
evidently  not  the  best  place  for  its  abrupt  beginning.  De- 
partmentalization should  be  pretty  well  developed  by  the 
time  the  ninth  grade  is  reached;  but  it  should  be  a  matter 
of  development,  not  of  abrupt  change. 

The  junior  high  school  offers  to  solve  this  problem  for  us 
by  taking  the  one-teacher-taught  pupil  and  sympathetically 
and  gradually  introducing  him  to  departmental  teaching.  A 
sympathetic  class  adviser  teaching  him  one  solid  subject  and 
two  or  three  minors  like  penmanship,  spelling,  and  oral  Eng- 
lish, or  teaching  him  two  or  three  solids  in  the  seventh 
grade,  will  make  the  transition  easy  and  pleasant  and  safe. 
The  other  teachers,  too,  with  the  right  interest  in  children, 
will  appreciate  his  difficulties  and  help  him  over  the  yawn- 
ing chasm),  even  at  the  expense  of  strict  requirements  of 
the  curriculum. 

The  effect  of  the  junior  high  school  on  enrollment  in  ninth 
grade  in  Grand  Rapids  is  shown  in  the  following  table.  The 
population  of  school  age  was  practically  stationary  during 
the  years  1908-16.  We  underline  the  years  in  which  the  ninth 
grade  was  affected  by  the  establishment  of  junior  high 
schools. 

Ninth  grade  enrollment  Gain  per  cent 

1908  635         i.  plus 

1909  626         10.  " 

1910  693  3.  ' 

1911  713         I2-  ' 

1912  804  12.  " 

1913  829         3-  " 

1914  984         18.  ' 

" '-"35         J5-  " 


THE   PROBLEMS   AND  THE   SOLUTION  13 

In  further  proof  of  the  efficacy  of  the  junior  high  school 
plan  in  holding  pupils  in  school,  may  be  cited  the  following 
figures  from  the  Pomona  schools.  There  is  a  law  in  Cali- 
fornia compelling  children  to  attend  school  until  they  reach 
their  fifteenth  birthday.  It  is  so  strictly  enforced  that  we  have 
not  used  figures  that  concern  the  number  of  sixth-grade 
entrants  who  enter  seventh  grade.  The  junior  high  schools 
were  established  in  1914,  and  in  1915  affected  seventh-grade 
entrants  who  entered  eighth  grade;  eighth-grade  entrants 
who  entered  ninth  grade  were  also  affected  that  year.  Ninth- 
grade  entrants  who  entered  tenth  grade  were  not  affected  by 
the  junior  high  school  until  the  fall  of  1^916;  and  tenth- 
grade  entrants  who  entered  eleventh  grade,  not  until  1917. 
We  have  underlined  the  percentages  affected  by  the  junior 
high  school. 

7th  to  8th  8th  to  gth  gth  to  loth  loth  to  i  ith 
Sept.    1914  ............  92%       86%        93%          84% 

Sept.    1915  ............  100%        99%         87%          80% 

Sept.    1916  ............  93-9%     92%        92%          71% 

Sept.    1917  ............  88.3%     905%     967% 


Pomona  is  a  rsidential  city  and  began  to  be  affected  by 
the  European  war  in  the  spring  of  1916,  when  many  families 
moved  away  to  the  industrial  and  mining  centers.  This  loss 
of  pupils  accounts  for  the  counter  movement  shown  in  the 
table.  It  is  seen  mpst  plainly  in  the  first,  second  and  last 
columns.  In  the  first  column  under  the  same  influence  the 
percentage  sank  from  100  to  93.9  and  then  to  88.3  per  cent. 
In  the  second  from  99  to  92  and  then  to  90.5.  In  the  fourth 
column,  under  unvarying  influences,  the  percentages  sank 
from  84  to  80  and  then  to  71.  In  every  grade  the  junior 
high  school  immediately  raised  the  percentages  as  soon  as 


14  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

the  change  began  to  affect  it.  In  the  eighth  grade  the  per- 
centage was  raised  from  92  to  100  per  cent;  in  the  ninth 
grade  from  86  to  99  per  cent ;  in  the  tenth  grade  from  87  to 
92  per  cent;  and  in  the  eleventh  from  71  to  95  per  cent. 

Superintendent  P.  W.  Horn,  of  Houston,  reports  to  his 
board  as  follows:  "The  most  easily  measurable  result  of 
the  junior  high  schools  is  in  the  matter  of  attendance.  In 
1913-14  the  attendance  of  white  children  in  the  high  school 
of  Houston  was  1341.  In  1916-17  the  high  school  enroll- 
ments, not  including  seventh-grade  pupils  in  junior  high 
schools,  was  2091.  This  shows  an  increase  of  56  per  cent 
in  high  school  enrollment  in  three  years,  which  is  more  than 
double  the  rate  of  increase  in  the  elementary  schools."  To 
understand  the  correctness  of  Superintendent  Horn's  state- 
ment, it  must  be  explained  that  Houston  has  no  eighth  grade. 
The  seventh,  first  high  and  second  high  school  grades  are  in 
the  junior  high  schools,  while  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  are 
in  the  senior  high  schools. 

4.  Vocation  selection  through  junior  high  school. 
Hitherto,  when  the  importance  of  vocational  guidance  was 
not  appreciated  or  even  understood,  the  selection  of  high 
school  courses  was  left  either  to  the  child  or  to  the  eighth- 
grade  teacher.  Of  course,  the  high  school  principal  was  in 
no  position  to  guide  the  pupil,  for  the  pupil  was  probably 
entirely  unknown  to  him  before  the  first  day  of  school.  The 
eighth-grade  teacher,  with  her  lack  of  close  touch  with  high 
school  progress,  is  also  not  a  safe  guide.  The  child's  selec- 
tion of  a  course  must  necessarily  be  haphazard  unless  infor- 
mation has  by  chance  fallen  into  his  hands. 

There  is  no  more  important  step  in  the  life  of  an  indi- 
vidual than  that  in  which  he  starts  upon  a  high  school 
course.  He  may  some  day,  after  paying  a  fearful  penalty, 


THE   PROBLEMS   AND  THE   SOLUTION  15 

overcome  a  mistake  made  at  this  time.  There  may  be  some 
high  school  courses  so  general  that  they  will  meet  the  needs 
of  a  large  percentage  of  a  group  of  a  hundred  beginners.  In 
some  schools  there  may  be  a  chance  for  readjustment  later 
on.  But  these  cases  represent  the  exception,  not  the  rule. 

There  is  undoubtedly  great  need  for  careful  vocational 
and  educational  guidance.  The  best  time  for  an  adviser  to 
study  the  boy  is  in  the  period  of  early  adolescence,  just 
before  he  enters  high  school.  The  best  opportunity  for 
such  study  is  when  the  student  is  "exposed"  to  various 
stimuli.  Let  a  boy  take  a  fair  amount  of  several  subjects, 
and  then  have  the  vocational  adviser  watch  carefully  the 
effect.  It  should  place  him  in  a  position  to  diagnose  the 
case  with  small  chance  of  making  a  mistake. 

The  junior  high  school  is  such  an  institution  as  will  allow 
the  greatest  opportunity  for  this  study.  We  have  the  boy 
or  girl  at  just  the  right  age.  There  are  plenty  of  short 
courses  which  the  pupil  may  take.  If  he  is  ever  going  to 
have  an  aptitude  or  liking  for  anything,  it  will  surely  show 
in  the  period  from  twelve  years  old  to  sixteen.  With  pre- 
engineering,  pre-medical,  pre-agriculture,  pre-business,  pre- 
everything  in  the  curriculum  that  he  has  to  take  in  the 
junior  high  school,  he  should  show  a  response  to  something 
or  to  several  things.  A  few  may  not  respond  to  any  of 
these  subjects.  Some  superior  authority,  such  as  the  parent 
or  adviser,  may  well  take  in  hand  pupils  of  this  kind  and  put 
them  through  a  rigid  general  curriculum  in  high  school, 
finding  out  thereby  the  things  they  respond  to  least.  By  a 
process  of  elimination,  just  what  is  needed  by  such  pupils 
may  be  ascertained. 

If  it  be  true,  as  some  educational  writers  assert,  that  early 
adolescents  retain  very  little  of  what  they  learn — get  in  fact 
very  little  benefit  from  study — then  it  is  no  waste  of 


l6  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

time  to  use  this  period  for  experimentation  with  them.  It 
would  at  least  be  far  better  to  use  this  period  for  experimen- 
tation and  save  the  pupils  to  the  high  school,  than  to  let 
them  drop  out  or  to  drive  them  out  by  our  past  methods. 
But  we  are  convinced  by  what  has  been  done  in  vocational 
guidance  through  the  intermediate  high  schools  of  Los 
Angeles,  Grand  Rapids,  Houston  and  Pomona,  that  the 
richest  and  most  valuable  results  are  obtainable  by  the  use 
of  the  early  adolescent  years  of  school  children. 

Here  in  the  junior  high  school,  the  vocational  adviser  has 
his  class  in  vocational  information  and  guidance.  At  least 
one  semester  should  be  devoted  by  each  pupil  to  this  class. 
In  Pomona  this  subject  is  taken  by  every  pupil  during  the 
semester  preceding  his  graduation  into  the  senior  high 
school.  The  pupils  learn  about  the  world  of  occupations, 
the  kinds  of  work,  the  compensation  of  each,  and  the  advan- 
tages and  disadvantages  of  every  vocation.  Interest  is 
aroused  in  the  whole  field  of  occupations,  and  the  pupils 
begin  to  see  the  importance  of  their  life  careers.  Here  also 
they  find  that  society's  interests  are  worthy  of  their  consid- 
eration. They  awaken  to  the  fact  that  they  themselves  are 
of  importance  in  the  progress  of  civilization. 

The  vocational  adviser  becomes  well  acquainted  with  the 
pupils  whom  he  is  to  advise  and  guide.  The  boys  and  girls 
are  also  stimulated  to  study  themselves  and  their  own  apti- 
tudes. Guidance  therefore  becomes  a  co-operative  task,  in 
which  the  pupil  takes  an  active  part.  In  such  a  class  he 
learns  to  study  himself  and  measure  his  character,  abilities 
and  likings.  This  habit  of  introspection  is  of  value  to  him, 
whether  or  not  he  hits  upon  the  proper  vocation  at  this  time. 

The  vocational  information  acquired  and  the  choice  of 
occupation  made  by  the  pupil  are  immediately  put  into  use 
in  planning  a  curriculum  to  be  taken  in  the  senior  high 


THE   PROBLEMS    AND  THE   SOLUTION  17 

school.  The  plan  is  to  select  such  courses  as  will  best  fit 
the  boy  for  service  for  himself  and  to  society.  The  chosen 
vocation  is  to  be  the  central  object,  but  of  course  not  the 
only  object.  The  subjects  are  to  be  grouped  about  the  main 
purpose  of  his  education.  When  completely  planned,  this 
curriculum  becomes  the  concrete  result  of  the  whole  process 
of  vocational  guidance  in  the  junior  high  school. 

5.  Shortening  the  course  by  means  of  the  junior  high 
school.  We  have  spoken  of  the  demand  that  men  get  into 
their  life  work  earlier.  The  junior  high  school  proposes  to 
do  its  part  by  shortening  the  time  required  by  an  entire 
year.  The  university,  however,  feels  that  three  or  four 
years  are  already  too  short  a  time  in  which  to  give  a  profes- 
sional course  that  is  well-rounded  and  thorough.  Moreover, 
the  universities  are  insistent  on  at  least  two  full  years  of 
college  work  as  a  preparation  for  the  university  course.  On 
the  other  hand,  educators  insist  that  children  should  not 
enter  school  at  an  earlier  age  than  six,  while  the  laws  of 
many  states  forbid  earlier  entrance.  Long  experience  has 
shown  that  the  tools  and  foundations  of  education  are  not 
obtainable  in  less  than  six  or  seven  years. 

The  junior  high  school  has  undertaken  the  task  of  saving 
a  year  of  time.  It  proposes  to  do  the  work  of  four  grades  in 
three  years.  In  some  places  this  plan  takes  the  form  of 
doing  the  work  of  the  sixth,  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth 
grades  in  three  years,  leaving  the  senior  high  school  the 
tenth,  eleventh  and  twelfth  grades  to  deal  with.  Richmond, 
Virginia,  has  worked  out  this  plan  very  satisfactorily.  The 
plan  has  many  things  to  commend  it  to  parents.  One  in 
particular  is,  that  the  tradition  of  an  eight  year  elementary 
school  is  not  changed.  The  children  and  the  parents  are 
not  called  upon  to  make  any  sacrifices  or  to  change  their 
ideals.  When  the  child  is  graduated  from  the  elementary 


i8 


THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 


school  he  enters  the  tenth  grade  instead  of  the  ninth  grade. 

The  plan  that  commends  itself  to  many  educators  and 
thinking  parents  as  the  best  is  one  in  which  the  work  of  the 
seventh,  eighth,  ninth  and  tenth  grades  is  done  in  three 
years.  In  such  a  plan  the  elementary  school  ends  with  the 
sixth  grade  and  the  secondary  school  begins  with  the  sev- 
enth. If  the  elementary  school  has  done  its  work  properly 
the  pupil  will  not  need  much  further  work  on  the  funda- 
mental operations  in  arithmetic  or  the  foundational  ideas  in 
the  other  subjects.  Reading,  of  course,  is  continued  in 
literature;  language  in  English  (composition  and  gram- 
mar) ;  historical  stories  in  history ;  arithmetical  application 
in  bookkeeping  and  practical  accounts.  Cultural  subjects, 
such  as  Latin,  algebra  and  general  science,  may  be  begun  at 
once,  with  considerable  simplification  of  the  beginnings. 

The  following  plan — the  one  first  adopted  in  Pomona — 
will  illustrate  this  shortening  of  the  course: 

FIRST    SEMESTER          SECOND     SEMESTER          THIRD  SEMESTER 
English    (non  H.   S.)    English    (non  H.   S.)    English    (non  H.   S.) 
U.S.  Hist.   (nonH.S.)  U.  S.  Hist,  (non  H.S.)    Civics    (non   H.    S.) 
Latin  (%   H.  S.  Cr.)    Latin    (%    Cr.)  Latin    (%    Cr.) 

Algebra    ( Vs    Cr.)          Algebra   (%    Cr.) 
FIFTH  SEMESTER  SIXTH  SEMESTER 

Accounts   (non  H.S.) 

English  II   (%   Cr.) 

Latin    (%    Cr.) 

PI.  Geom.  (%  Cr.) 

Gen.  Science  (%  Cr.) 

Anc.  Hist.    (%    Cr.) 

Manual  Tr.   (%   Cr.) 

Cooking   (%    Cr.) 

Music    (%    Cr.) 

Art   (%   Cr.) 

Mec.  Draw.   (%   Cr.) 

two  courses  in  each  semester  are  re- 
quired, and  three  of  the  last  eight  courses  must  be  elected. 
During  the  first  three  semesters,  the  pupil  completes  the 
applications  of  the  foundation  subjects  and  earns  two  high 


Algebra  (%  H.S.Cr.) 

FOURTH  SEMESTER 
Accounts   (non  H!S.) 
English  I  (%  Cr.) 
Latin   (%    Cr.) 
PI.  Geom.    (%    Cr.) 
Gen.  Science  (%  Cr.) 
Anc.  Hist.  I  (%  Cr.) 
Manual  Tr.   (%   Cr.) 
Cooking   (%   Cr.) 
Music    (%    Cr.) 
Art  (%  Cr.) 
Mec.  Draw.   (%   Cr.) 

Note:     The  first 


Physiology  (nonH.S.) 
English  III    (%   Cr.) 
Latin    (%    Cr.) 
PL   Geom.    (%    Cr.) 
Gen.  Science    (%  Cr.) 
Anc.  Hist.   (%    Cr.) 
Manual  Tr.   (%   Cr.) 
Cooking   (%    Cr.) 
Music    (%    Cr.) 
Art   (%   Cr.) 
Mec.  Draw.   (%   Cr.) 


THE   PROBLEMS    AND  THE   SOLUTION  19 

school  credits.  During  the  second  three  semesters,  the  pupil 
earns  five  high  school  credits.  He  graduates  into  senior  high 
school  with  seven  credits,  which  give  him  eleventh  grade 
standing.  By  taking  four  courses  through  the  next  two 
years  he  has  upon  graduation  from  senior  high  school  fifteen 
credits,  or  enough  to  enter  college.  As  he  takes  physical 
education,  unprepared  oral  English,  and  singing  throughout 
the  five  years,  he  is  given  an  additional  credit  in  a  combina- 
tion of  these  courses. 

This  curriculum  is  cited  only  as  a  type  of  plan  whereby 
the  work  of  four  grades  may  be  done  in  three  years. 

Another  plan  that  helps  to  shorten  the  time  of  preparation 
for  university  work  is  that  of  promotion  by  subject  in  the 
seventh  and  eighth  grades.  While  promotion  by  grade  in  the 
elementary  grades  may  be  defensible,  such  a  plan  is  bad 
after  the  fundamentals  of  education  have  been  mastered.  In 
the  lower  grades  harmonious  development  is  the  chief  aim 
of  the  child's  study ;  in  the  secondary  school  the  chief  aim 
is  development  of  individual  characteristics.  Promotion  in 
the  elementary  school  may  possibly  be  best  only  when  the 
pupil  attains  a  certain  minimum  standard  in  all  subjects. 
Such  a  plan  followed  in  the  secondary  schools  would  defeat 
the  purpose  of  truly  secondary  education. 

Promotion  by  subject  begun  with  early  adolescent  educa- 
tion will  tend  to  shorten  the  entire  secondary  curriculum. 
Failure  in  one  course  will  not  hold  the  pupil  back  in  all  his 
courses.  A  second  failure  in  the  same  course  is  a  pretty 
good  indication  that  the  pupil's  best  education  does  not  need 
that  subject,  provided,  of  course,  that  the  teacher  has  done 
his  part  properly. 

Shortening  the  time  consumed  in  completing  the  curricu- 
lum by  a  year  and  promotion  by  subject  are  possible  only  in 
some  form  of  junior  high  school. 


2O  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

6.  Adapting  education  to  the  needs  of  adolescence 
through  the  junior  high  school.  The  practical  application 
of  this  plan  consists  in  introducing  vocational  work  into  the 
curriculum  to  meet  the  growing  demand  for  real,  occupa- 
tional work;  departmentalizing  instruction  for  the  better 
development  of  the  individuality  of  the  pupil  and  for  the 
better  teaching  of  the  rich  content  of  secondary  subjects; 
enriching  the  curriculum  by  new  and  mind-broadening  sub- 
jects, such  as  the  cultural  and  civic  subjects;  and  by  adapt- 
ing all  school  life  to  the  needs  of  adolescence — physical, 
mental,  moral,  and  religious. 

We  shall  discuss  these  various  junior  high  school  methods 
in  connection  with  certain  demands  of  the  adolescent  nature, 
first  for  boys  and  then  for  girls. 

A.  The  education  of  adolescent  boys  is  based  upon 
their  psychical  and  physical  needs.  To  the  educator  or  to  the 
social  reformer  planning  the  proper  education  of  boys,  one 
must  commend  the  proverb,  "A  little  child  shall  lead  them/' 
To  know  what  to  do,  we  must  study  the  child  and  let  his 
needs  tell  us  what  kinds  of  training  should  be  given. 

1 i )  The  boy's  tendency  to  grow  and  be  active  is  encour- 
aged.    In  school  the  boy  is  taught  that  the  home  should 
provide  plenty  of  well-cooked,  nourishing  food,  and  should 
not  provide  for  much  sweets,  highly  seasoned  diet,  stimu- 
lants, or  rich  dishes.    The  junior  high  school  sees  to  it  that 
the  police  make  it  impossible  for  him  to  secure  liquors  and 
tobacco  in  any  form.    The  school  and  the  playground  pro- 
vide plenty  of  physical  exercise  and  culture,  athletics,  games, 
and  manual  and  physical  labor. 

(2)  The  feeling  of  adultness  and  the  desire  to  be  consid- 
ered grown  up  are  not  suppressed,  but  are  used  for  character 
building.     Boys'  organizations   like  the   Scouts,   Baraccas, 
and  Corn  Clubs  are  formed  in  school.  The  school  allows  the 


THE   PROBLEMS   AND  THE   SOLUTION  21 

boy  certain  elective  studies  within  a  safe  and  sane  range, 
and  under  proper  vocational  guidance.  The  organization  of 
student  self-government  may  afford  a  satisfactory  method 
of  allowing  boys  self-expression  in  their  desire  for  adult- 
hood. Here  also  belong  the  vocational  aspirations  that  need 
direction. 

(3)  The  widening  of  the  reasoning  faculties  is  allowed 
expression  in  debate,  orations,  argumentation,  and  mathe- 
matical studies.     Historical,  political  and  economic  studies 
afford  excellent  material    for    the    development    of    these 
faculties. 

(4)  Rapid  fluctuation  in  temperament  is  reduced  to  a 
minimum  by  the  school  in  requiring  definiteness  of  studies 
and  continuation  of  a  course  through  at  least  several  months. 
The  school  assigns  tasks  that  require  regularity  and  persist- 
ence. The  worst  thing  that  can  be  done  is  to  coddle  the  boy 
and  encourage  him  in  feeling  that  he  has  real  cause  for 
grievance.     Such  indulgence  will  inevitably  lead  the  boy  to 
take  a  pride  in  the  obstinacy  of  his  temper,  his  sulking,  his 
fits  of  gloom  and  despondency,  and  his  changeful  moods. 
The  junior  high  school  injects  a  little  more  iron  and  stern- 
ness into  its  dealing  with  boy  delinquents  than  does  the 
elementary  school. 

(5)  The  strong  physical  emotions  of  adolescent  boys 
are  developed  into  higher  aesthetic  emotions.  Boys  like  rag- 
time and  noisy  music;  they  are  led  to  enjoy  good  music  by 
the  right  process  in  school  and  in  their  clubs.     Boys  like  the 
touch  sensations  felt  in  rubbing,  wrestling,  and  swimming. 
Care  must  be  exercised  not  to  allow  these  touch  sensations 
to  become    degenerate    or    unhealthy.      Boys    like    rugged 
scenery,  bright  lights,  and  gaudy  colors.  The  school  attempts 
to  direct  this  taste  into  the  highest  lines. 


22  THE   JUNIOR    HIGH    SCHOOL 

(6)  Boys  sometimes  feel  as  if  the  world  rested  upon 
them  and  the  welfare  of  society  depended  upon  their  opin- 
ions and  actions.    This  feeling  is  seized  and  made  use  of— 
not  for  the  benefit  of  society,  but  for  the  reflex  action  upon 
the  boy.     What  he  plans,  the  reforms  he  advocates,  the 
changes  he  so  valiantly  champions,  may  never  be  brought 
to  pass ;  but  the  fact  that  he  plans,  advocates,  and  champions, 
has  a  great  effect  upon  his  character.    This  impulse  may  be 
directed  toward  the  home,  the  school,  the  church,  etc.,  but 
cannot  issue  in  anything.    It  is  turned  upon  the  boy's  debat- 
ing society,  his  club,  his  ball  team,  the  rules  of  the  game  he 
plays,  etc.,  with  good  effect. 

(7)  The  distinct  sensory  feelings  of  the  adolescent  are 
worthy  of  careful  cultivation  and  practical  use.    The  school 
through  its  classes  manages    this    activity.     The    sciences 
appeal  to  the  boy  whose  senses  of  sight,  hearing,  weighing, 
feeling,  smelling,  and  measuring,  are  keen  and  alert.     So  it 
is  also  with  drawing,  mensuration,  surveying,  manual  train- 
ing, and  geometry. 

(8)  The  religious  awakening  in  boys  at  this  age  is  prob- 
ably associated  with    the    emotional    development    of    the 
period.    Induction  into  church  membership  usually  comes  in 
the  early  adolescent  stage,  and  a  feeling  of  moral  responsi- 
bility arises.    The  boy  begins  to  long  for  a  purpose  in  living 
and  to  plan  for  the  future.    The  school  teachers  and  advisers 
seize  time  by  the  forelock  and  gain  the  boy's  confidence,  and 
put  him  to  work  in  some  purposeful  way,  and  show  him  how 
he  can  be  a  power  for  good,  a  leader  in  the  battle  for  right. 
The  fighting  spirit  in  boys  of  this  age  will  spur  them  on  to 
enter  any  undertaking  that  smacks  of  battle  and  war.    They 
delight  to  be  enlisted  as  Christian  soldiers,  but  they  must 
have  real  fighting  or  they  will  turn  away  in  disgust  at  the 


THIC    PROBLEMS    AND   THE    SOLUTION  23 

hollowness  of  the  cause.  The  school  has  its  part  in  the 
development  of  religious  feeling  and  moral  courage,  and 
should  not  shirk  it. 

B.  Education  of  the  adolescent  girl.  Even  more  than 
with  the  boy,  we  shall  find  this  a  problem  of  physical 
development — a  problem  that  involves  not  the  girl  alone, 
but  the  future  generations  descendant  from  her.  We  must 
keep  constantly  in  mind  the  fact  that  we  are  educating  the 
mother  of  the  race.  It  is  important  that  she  should  have  an 
ideal  environment  in  which  to  mature  her  body.  We  insist 
on  this  to  such  a  degree  because  almost  the  opposite  has 
been  true — the  girl's  physical  development  has  been  neg- 
lected and  her  mental  development  has  been  overstimulated, 
to  the  great  detriment  of  the  race  and  to  the  great  unhappi- 
ness  of  the  individual  girl.  We  mean,  of  course,  that  the  over 
schooling  of  girls  has  lessened  their  chances  of  marriage  at 
the  proper  time  for  women  to  marry;  and  that  home  and 
society  have  combined  to  educate  women  in  senseless  styles 
of  dress,  in  vicious  dietary  habits,  in  unsanitary  prudery, 
and  in  physical  flaccidity  to  a  very  considerable  extent. 

The  junior  high  school  attempts  sensibly  to  give  physical 
education  of  the  right  sort.  A  good  diet,  exercises,  proper 
elimination,  sleep,  and  dress  are  the  principal  positive  fac- 
tors ;  moderation  in  study,  in  social  functions,  in  physical 
labor,  in  standing,  and  climbing  stairs  is  the  principal  nega- 
tive factor.  These  matters  are  all  worked  out  carefully  and 
put  into  practice  by  persistent  and  wise  co-operation  of  all 
concerned.  Instruction  in  the  care  of  the  body  should  espe- 
cially be  insisted  upon  during  the  period  of  adolescence. 

Next  in  importance  comes  the  vocational  education  of 
girls  for  the  vocation  that  is  to  engross  thirty  years  of  their 
life  in  ninety  out  of  every  hundred  lives — home  making.  In 
school,  girls  are  taught  domestic  science,  sewing,  and  home 


24  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL, 

economics.  They  are  given  lessons  in  buying,  shopping,  de- 
tecting shams  from  realities,  resisting  the  solicitations  of 
salesmen  of  goods  not  needed ;  they  are  also  taught  how  the 
government  can  assist  in  the  training  of  girls  for  home  life 
by  eliminating  the  economic  conditions  that  draw,  or  drive, 
girls  into  the  industries. 

As  girls'  senses  are  wonderfully  acute  at  this  time,  their 
education  involves  the  cultivation  of  flowers  and  shrubbery. 
They  have  the  opportunity  to  hear  and  learn  to  appreciate 
good  music,  vocal  and  instrumental.  They  see  works  of  art — 
pictures,  statuary,  and  buildings.  This  is  the  period  when 
deftness  of  the  hands  is  developed  by  means  of  needlework, 
crocheting,  fingering  the  piano,  painting  and  drawing, 
bandaging,  molding,  kneading,  massaging,  dressing  -the 
hair,  braiding. 

Singing,  playing  the  piano,  drawing,  and  jpaintmg 
belong  here.  These  may  be  supplemented  by  decorating, 
designing,  draping,  trimming,  arranging  of  flowers,  sculp- 
turing, pounding  of  brass,  and  wood  carving.  Millinery, 
costume  design,  book  binding,  art-metal  work,  musical 
composition,  versifying,  dancing,  and  dramatization,  all  are 
taught  in  the  junior  high  school  and  are  very  closely  related 
to  the  natural  life  of  the  adolescent  girl. 

The  gregariousness  of  girls  at  this  period  is  used  to 
advantage  by  the  junior  high  school.  They  must  have 
cliques  and  societies,  with  secret  signs  and  mystery.  Girls' 
clubs,  French-speaking  circles,  girls'  moral-training  classes, 
taffy-making  parties,  girls'  camps,  are  all  necessary  to  this 
adolescent  period.  Through  these  organizations  many  valu- 
able lessons  are  learned — co-operation,  neighborlines?, 
hygienic  living,  sociability,  tact,  self-possession,  and  organ- 
ization. 


THE   PROBLEMS   AND  THE   SOLUTION  25 

More  will  be  said  later  concerning  the  training  of  both 
boys  and  girls  in  good  physical,  mental  and  moral  habits. 
Too  much  insistence  cannot  be  placed  upon  the  necessity  for 
careful  supervision  by  teachers  of  all  youthful  activities  and 
watchful  <(big-brotherliness"  twenty-four  hours  a  day. 


CHAPTER  TWO 

HISTORY  OF  THE  MOVEMENT 

The  plan  of  this  book  is  first  to  explain  the  junior  high 
school  movement,  and  then  to  describe  the  school  as  an  insti- 
tution. The  first  four  chapters  are  devoted  to  the  first  topic. 
In  chapter  I,  we  explained  how  conditions  alleged  to  be 
caused  or  permitted  by  the  school  system  had  become  so 
bad  that  the  public  made  certain  specific  demands  upon  the 
school.  The  school  system  organized  on  the  8-4  plan  did 
not  seem  to  be  able  to  meet  these  demands,  hence  the  reor- 
ganization of  the  school  system  and  the  creation  of  a  junior 
high  school.  The  newly  created  school  undertakes  to  bring 
about  the  desired  reforms. 

In  this  chapter  we  continue  to  discuss  the  junior  high 
school  movement.  We  go  into  its  history  from  its  inception, 
describing  its  prototypes  in  (Europe  and  America  and  the 
establishment  of  the  first  successful  junior  high  schools  in 
this  country,  and  relate  how  the  National  Education  Asso- 
ciation, after  deliberating  over  the  problems  for  many 
years,  finally  took  fire  and  became  a  mighty  crusading  force, 
how  the  new  schools  sprang  up  all  over  the  land.  The 
chapter  closes  with  a  brief  description  of  the  various  plans 
being  tried  in  the  widely  scattered  parts  of  our  country. 

1.  Foreign  systems.  As  the  new  division  of  the 
twelve  grades  of  the  American  school  system  into  two 
groups  of  six  years  each  was  largely  suggested  by  European 
schools,  it  seems  proper  to  describe  briefly  the  German  and 
French  plans. 

In  Germany  there  are  two  distinct  types  of  schools — one 
for  the  lower  class  of  society,  the  other  for  the  upper  class. 
The  first  embraces  nine  years  of  study,  beginning  at  the 

26 


HISTORY   OF    THE   MOVEMENT  27 

age  of  six  and  closing  normally  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  The 
curriculum  is  divided  into  two  parts,  an  elementary  school 
of  six  years  and  an  upper  division  of  three  years.  The  upper 
division  is  therefore  begun  at  the  age  of  twelve,  or  at  the 
very  beginning  of  adolescence.  The  six  preliminary  classes 
only  are  taught  in  the  common  schools.  The  six  elementary 
grades  and  the  upper  three  grades  are  taught  in  the  Biirger- 
schulen.  The  upper  division  is  distinguished  from  the  lower 
by  the  introduction  of  English  and  Latin  in  the  first  year 
and  by  an  increase  in  the  number  of  recitations  per  week. 

The  second  type  of  school,  i.  e.,  that  for  the  upper  classes, 
has  also  a  curriculum  embracing  nine  years,  but  it  takes  the 
pupil  at  nine  years  of  age  and  carries  him  through  to 
eighteen  years  of  age.  The  pupil  enters  this  school  able  to 
read  and  write  and  with  some  knowledge  of  numbers.  This 
type  of  school  is  divided  into  three  divisions — a  lower  stage 
of  three  years,  an  intermediate  stage  of  three  years,  and  a 
higher  stage  of  three  years.  There  is  no  sharp  distinction 
between  the  lower  and  the  intermediate  stages,  but  in  gen- 
eral it  may  be  said  that  somewhere  near  this  dividing  line 
the  study  of  French,  English,  or  Greek  is  begun ;  the  number 
of  recitation  periods  per  week  is  greatly  increased;  history 
and  algebraic  and  geometric  mathematics  are  taken  up ;  pen- 
manship is  discontinued ;  and  pupils  are  allowed  a  certain 
amount  of  election  of  subjects.  There  is  no  break  whatever 
between  the  intermediate  stage  and  the  higher  stage,  unless 
the  increase  from  thirty-five  to  thirty-six  recitation  periods 
per  week  can  be  so  considered. 

The  fact  stands  out  clearly  that  what  we  call  secondary 
education  begins  with  the  twelfth  year  of  age  in  both  lower- 
class  and  upper-class  schools  in  Germany.  The  intermediate 
stage  of  the  schools  for  the  children  of  the  upper-class 
people  corresponds  to  the  highest  division  of  the  Burger- 


28  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

schulen  in  all  essential  points,  and  both  are  of  three  years' 
duration.  This  intermediate  school  work  stands  out  dis- 
tinct and  clear  from  the  foundational  type  of  work  that 
precedes  it. 

In  France  there  are  free  schools  and  pay  schools.  The 
elementary  free  or  common  school  begins  at  six  years  of  age 
and  extends  through  to  eleven  or  twelve  years  of  age.  A 
primary  diploma  is  awarded.  This  takes  the  child  to  the 
beginning  of  adolescence.  The  common  schools  provide  for 
two  or  three  years  of  further  education  in  what  are  called 
higher  primary  schools:  complementary  course,  superior 
primary  school,  professional  school,  and  manual  arts  appren- 
tice school.  The  complementary  course  is  conducted  in  the 
same  building  as  the  elementary  school,  but  the  other  courses 
are  in  separate  buildings.  To  enter  these  higher  primary 
schools,  the  pupil  must  be  twelve  years  of  age  and  must  have 
completed  the  elementary  school.  The  curricula  are  all  of 
three  years'  duration  and  are  marked  by  their  enrichment 
with  what  we  should  call  secondary  school  subjects  and  with 
vocational  or  prevocational  subjects. 

The  pay  schools  are  partly  supported  by  the  nation  or  by 
the  nation  and  community.  They  are  variously  called  lycee, 
colleges,  or  secondary  schools.  They  provide  separate 
schools  for  boys  and  girls.  In  general  the  length  of  these 
curricula  is  five  or  six  years  for  girls  and  seven  years  for 
boys.  The  curriculum  is  divided  into  two  stages  or  cycles. 
The  first  stage  contains  three  years  for  girls  and  four  years 
for  boys.  Boys  are  received  as  young  as  ten  or  twelve  years 
of  age,  and  both  boys  and  girls  normally  complete  the  first 
cycle  by  the  time  they  are  fifteen.  Under  the  same  roof  that 
covers  the  lycee  or  college  (the  French  college  must  not  be 
confused  with  the  American  college)  is  conducted  a  primary 


HISTORY  OF  THE;  MOVEMENT  29 

school  for  well-to-do  children,  to  prepare  them  for  the  sec- 
ondary school. 

The  first  cycle  of  the  secondary  school — lycee,  college,  or 
secondary  course — is  quite  sharply  marked  off  from  primary 
schooling  in  that  there  is  given  an  election  of  studies,  foreign 
languages  are  begun,  the  number  of  recitations  per  week  is 
increased,  religion  is  taught,  and  more  attention  is  given  to 
the  sciences  and  mathematics.  There  is  no  sharp  division 
between  the  first  and  second  cycles. 

There  is  a  marked  resemblance  between  the  three-year 
higher  primary  school  course  and  the  first  cycle  of  the  lycee 
and  college.  They  both  cover  the  same  years  of  early  ado- 
lescent life ;  they  are  both  distinctly  marked  off  from  primary 
education;  they  are  either  in  entirely  separate  buildings 
from  primary  children  or  are  conducted  as  distinctly  differ- 
ent classes. 

The  reader  must  be  struck  by  the  parallel  in  the  following 
three  classes  of  schools: 

GERMAN                         FRENCH  AMERICAN 

Upper    division    of  Higher  primary  Junior     high     school 

Burgerschulen                 school  or  intermediate  high 

Intermediate  stage  of  school 
school  for  the  upper  First    cycle    of    lycee 
classes                             or  college 

GERMAN                          FRENCH  AMERICAN 
Three   year   course       Three  year  course  Three  year  course 
Age  12  to  15                 Age  n  or  12  to  15  Age  12  to  15 
Distinct      from      pri-  Distinct      from     pri-  Distinct      from     pri- 
mary course                    mary  course  mary  course 
Merges      into      upper  Merges     into    second  Merges     into     senior 
stage                                 cycle  high   school 
Some    election                Some  election  Some  election 
Foreign   languages        Foreign  languages  Foreign  languages 
Higher      mathematics  Higher      mathematics  Higher      mathematics 
and    sciences                   and   sciences  and  sciences 

2.  Various  plans  of  grouping  grades  in  the  United 
States.  In  the  United  States  the  general  standard  plan  has 
been  eight  years  of  elementary  education  and  four  years  of 


3O  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH   SCHOOL 

high  school.  However,  in  the  New  England  states  the 
grouping  was  until  recently  quite  generally  nine  and  four. 
In  the  Southern  states  financial  distress  following  the  Civil 
War  prevented  the  communities  from  offering  more  than 
seven  years  of  elementary  instruction.  So  they  have  been 
forced  to  be  content  with  a  7-4  plan.  In  a  canvass  taken  in 
1911  of  the  669  cities  of  8,000  population  or  over,  489  had 
the  8-4  plan,  86  had  the  9-4  plan,  48  had  the  7-4  plan,  4  had 
the  8-5  plan,  and  the  remainder  had  various  modifications  of 
these  forms.  Dr.  Frank  F.  Bunker's  monograph,  from 
which  the  above  data  are  taken,  points  out  that  ordinarily 
where  the  elementary  course  is  nine  years  in  length,  the 
child  starts  to  school  at  five  years  of  age ;  where  the  course 
is  eight  years  in  length,  he  starts  to  school  at  six ;  and  where 
it  is  seven  years  in  length,  he  starts  to  school  at  seven. 

In  every  case  the  pupil  normally  finishes  his  elementary 
course  at  fourteen  years  of  age,  or  two  years  later  than  his 
French  and  German  cousins.  As  adolescence  begins  here  at 
twelve  as  in  Europe,  we  have  ignored  the  point  that  they 
everywhere  observe,  namely,  that  adolescent  education 
should  be  different  from  pre-adolescent. 

However,  Dr.  Bunker's  investigation  shows  that  even 
before  1911  several  educators  had  begun  to  attempt  to  make 
a  change  in  the  grouping  so  as  to  adapt  education  to  the 
needs  of  the  two  periods  of  pre-maturity  pupils.  Not  only 
had  the  professors  of  education  in  our  great  universities 
and  normal  schools  rebelled  against  the  old  plan,  but  even 
the  administrators  in  our  great  school  systemte,  restricted  as 
they  were  by  conservative  public  opinion,  had  accomplished 
something  toward  a  reorganization.  Still  it  was  only  an 
attempt,  and  in  many  cases  with  no  clear  vision  of  just  what 
was  needed.  In  some  cases  the  changes  were  made  because 


HISTORY  OF   THE   MOVEMENT 


local  conditions  made  it  necessary — empty  high  school  and 
overflowing  grade  buildings,  the  need  of  men  teachers  for 
the  upper  grades,  or  a  grade  building  suddenly  emptied  by 
the  erection  of  a  larger  one  near.  But  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  in  some  instances  the  public  actually  took  the 
lead  and  forced  the  superintendent  and  school  board  to  do 
something. 

We  give  below  a  summary  of  these  changes  made  prior  to 
1911,  and  the  principal  features  of  each  plan: 


City   or  School      Supt. 
Boston  Latin 
School 


Chicago 


Richmond,   Ind.       Mott 


Saginaw,   Mich.      Whitney 


Providence 


Baltimore,  Md.       Van  Sickle 


Year   Plan  Features 

1635    6  yr.  Purely     college     pre- 
11.  S.     paratory.      Admitted 
pupils    at    10    or    11 
years    of   age.      Still 
thriving. 

1894    6yr.    Purely     college     pre- 
1896     H.  S.    paratory.         Courses 
of  study  based  upon 
an  elementary  6  yr. 
curriculum. 

1896  6-2-4  H.  S.  subjects  in  7th 
and  8th  grades.  Pro- 
motion by  subject. 

1898  6-6  One  year  of  college 
work.  Plan  aban- 
doned. 

1898  6-2-4  College-prep,  courses, 
with  foreign  lan- 
guages and  algebra 
in  7th  and  8th 
grades.  Reg.  H.  S. 
9-12  years. 

1902  6-3-2  Only  brighest  pupils 
permitted  at  end  of 
6th  grade  to  enter 
these  3-yr.  junior 
high  schools.  At  end 
of  two  years  of  Jr. 
H.  S.  only  the  best 
pupils  permitted  to 
take  the  3d  yr.  in 
junior  high  school. 


THE  JUNIOR    HIGH    SCHOOL 


City  or  School        Supt. 
Kalamazoo,  Mich.  Hartwell 


Muskegon,  Mich.    Frost 


Peabody,    Mass.      Albt.  Robinson  1905 
Philippine  Islands  D.  P.  Barrows  1905 

Marshalltown,   la.  Palmer 


Aurora,  111. 


Bardwell 


Issaquah,   Wash.     Bennett 


Selma,  Ala.  Harman 

Roanoke,  Va.          Hart 

Rah  way,  N.  Y.       Bickett 


Clean,  N.  Y.  Slawson 


Ithaca,  N.  Y.         Boynton 


Concord,  N.  H.     Rundlett 


New  York  State    A.  S.  Draper       1910    6-2-4 


Year  Plan  Features 

1902    7-3-2  One  central  senior  H. 
S.,      several      bldgs. 
containing    first 
seven  or  ten  grades. 
1904    6-1-     Seven    grades    all    in 
2-3         one     building.       8th 
and  9th  grades  in  H. 
S.  annex. 

8-5      Change   from  9-4. 
6-4-2  College     subjects     in 

last  2  yrs. 

7-1-4  8th  grade  depart- 
mentalized and  con- 
ducted in  H.  S.  bldg. 
8-5  Some  H.  S.  subjects 
in  7th  and  8th  gr. 
Fifth  H.  S.  year, 
college  work. 

1906  6-5  Two  grammar  grades 
taken  into  3  yr.  H. 
S.  and  department- 
alized. 

1909  7-5      Change   from   7-4. 

1910  6-2-4  Work  of  12  grades  in 

1 1  years. 

1910    5-3-3  H.  S.  subjects  in  7th 
and    8th    grades. 
Apart    from    H.     S. 
Promotion  by  subj. 
7-5       Best  pupils   finish  H. 
S.    at    end    of   nth 
year  of  school. 
6-2-4   H.   S.  subjects  in  7th 
and    8th    grades. 
Apart  from  H.  S. 

1910  6-2-3  The  "2"  and  the  "3" 
year  schools  in  sep- 
arate bldgs.  Short- 
ens course  12  to  n 
years. 

Elem.  education  com- 
pleted in  six  years. 
Real  secondary 
work  begins  in  7th 
grade. 


HISTORY  OF   THE   MOVEMENT  33 

City  or  School        Supt.  Year  Plan  Features 

New  Albany,  Ind.  Buerk  1910    7-1-4  Merely  a  grouping  of 

all  8th  grade  pupils 
in  one  bldg.  De- 
partmentalization. 

Alameda,  Cal.         Wood  1910    6-2-4  7th  and  8th  grades  in 

same  building  with 
lower  grades  but  de- 
partmental i  z  a  t  i  o  n 
and  principle  of 
election  introduced. 

Los  Angeles,  Cal.  Moore  1910    6-2-4  Languages  in  7th  and 

8th.  Departmental- 
ization. 

From  the  above  it  will  be  seen  that  the  new  day  was 
beginning  to  dawn  even  before  the  first  decade  of  the  twen- 
tieth century;  that  between  1900  and  1910  various  plans 
were  tried  out,  mlany  of  them  containing  one  or  more  of 
the  elements  of  the  junior  high  school  as  described  in  Chap- 
ter One  of  this  work.  When  at  last  the  new  plan  did  come 
into  being,  it  came  to  two  cities  at  the  same  time. 

3.  Superintendent  Bunker  and  the  Berkeley  plan.  In 
1908  Frank  F.  Bunker  was  elected  superintendent  of  schools 
for  the  city  of  Berkeley,  California,  after  having  served  a 
year  as  assistant  superintendent  in  Los  Angeles  under 
Superintendent  E.  C.  Moore.  He  was  a  careful  student  of 
education,  and  was  especially  interested  in  a  reorganization 
of  the  system  of  schools  so  that  each  grade  would  have  a 
particular  function  and  could  accomplish  the  end  desired  of 
it.  His  study  led  him  to  the  belief  that  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades  had  not  been  functioning — in  fact,  had  been  a 
stumbling  block  in  the  way  of  education ;  so  much  so  that  a 
large  percentage  of  children  were  dropping  out  during  those 
years  and  during  the  early  years  of  the  high  school  as  a 
result  of  the  failure  of  the  public  schools  to  do  their  work 
in  the  seventh  and  eighth  years  of  the  pupil's  school  life. 


34  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

In  January,  1910,  upon  the  recommendation  of  Superin- 
tendent Bunker,  the  Berkeley  School  Board  established  the 
first  junior  high  school  in  America.  The  plan  did  not  at 
first  meet  with  general  approval,  and  there  is  little  wonder 
that  it  did  not.  There  was  to  be  no  new  building  in  a  cen- 
trally located  part  of  the  city.  If  there  had  been  such  a 
building  just  completed  and  ready  for  occupancy,  doubtless 
the  problem  would  have  been  less  difficult.  Instead,  an  old 
grade  building  had  to  be  used,  and  even  then  not  all  of  that. 
The  neighborhood  insisted  that  it  be  allowed  to  continue  to 
send  its  smaller  children  to  this  building:  consequently  only 
a  part  could  be  used  for  the  junior  high  school  classes. 

Not  only  was  this  building  unsuitable  for  the  depart- 
mental work  of  an  intermediate  high  school  and  only  in  part 
usable  for  that  purpose,  but  seventh  and  eighth  grade  chil- 
•dreti  of  other  neighboring  buildings  had  become  so  attached 
to  their  own  schools  that  they  objected  to  being  shifted. 
This  objection  was  met  by  allowing  such  children  to  decide 
by^classes  whether  they  would  attend  the  one-teacher  grades 
.to  w'hich  they  had  been  accustomed,  or  go  to  the  junior  high 
school.  After  the  system  was  once  established,  however, 
•pupils  finishing  the  sixth  grade  were  required  to  go  to  the 
•central  intermediate  high  school  buildings.  Soon  the  ninth 
>grade  also  was  retained  in  these  buildings. 

So  great,  however,  were  the  difficulties,  so  new  the  plan, 
and  so  fundamental  was  the  change,  that  it  became  neces- 
sary to  appeal  to  the  people  for  a  ratification  of  the  scheme. 
A  campaign  of  enlightenment  was  undertaken,  and  dozens 
of  public  meetings  were  held  to  discuss  the  matter.  Parent- 
teacher  associations,  mothers'  clubs,  neighborhood  clubs, 
.and  churches  became  interested  in  the  question.  At  last 
favorable  resolutions  from  all  these  organizations  and 
.assemblies  were  presented  to  the  board  of  education,  and 


HISTORV   OF1    THE   MOVEMENT  35 

the  six-three-three  plan  became  permanent  in  Berkeley. 
There  are  now  several  large  buildings  devoted  entirely  to  the 
junior  high  school  work. 

4.  The  Los  Angeles  plan.  Supt.  E.  C.  Moore,  who 
had  inspired  Bunker  with  enthusiasm  for  a  reorganization 
of  secondary  education,  was  to  awaken  a  similar  interest  in 
J.  H.  Francis.  While  Mr.  Francis,  at  that  time  principal  of 
a  large  polytechnic  high  school  in  Los  Angeles,  was  travel- 
ing in  Europe  in  1909,  he  wrote  from  Italy  a  detailed  report 
to  Superintendent  Moore  on  his  investigations  in  Europe 
and  advocated  the  six-three-three  plan  for  the  schools  of  his 
city.  Mr.  Francis  approached  the  conception  from  an 
entirely  different  point  of  view  from  Mr.  Bunker.  He  was 
interested  in  the  vocational  phase  of  the  question.  If  boys 
and  girls  will  drop  out  of  school  at  fifteen  or  sixteen  years 
of  age,  they  should  get,  while  in  school,  some  practical  infor- 
mation and  some  technical  skill  that  will  help  them  to  earn 
a  living.  Good  as  were  the  technical,  commercial,  and 
applied  art  courses  of  the  high  school,  they  very  largely 
failed  to  reach  the  largest  class  of  boys  and  girls  who  would 
use  that  type  of  education,  for  that  class  ordinarily  leaves 
school  at  the  end  of  the  eighth  or  ninth  grade. 

In  the  summer  of  1910  Mr.  Francis  was  elected  superin- 
tendent of  the  city  schools  of  Los  Angeles,  and  at  once 
launched  his  plans.  Influential  with  his  board,  he  readily 
got  it  to  embark  upon  a  course  of  establishing  intermediate 
high  schools.  These  met,  of  course,  the  same  conservative 
opposition  that  had  characterized  the  inauguration  of  the 
plan  in  Berkeley.  But  Los  Angeles  was  so  large  and  so 
rapidly  growing  a  community  that  new  school  buildings 
were  constantly  being  built.  Several  of  the  new  buildings 
were  used  as  junior  high  schools.  These  very  attractive 


36  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

homes  for  the  junior  high  school  at  once  aroused  the  enthu- 
siasm of  pupils  and  parents. 

In  Los  Angeles  the  ninth-grade  pupils  living  in  certain 
sections  are  permitted  to  attend  high  school  if  they  prefer. 
About  50  per  cent  elect  to  go  to  the  high  school.  Pupils 
expecting  to  continue  in  school  through  the  twelfth  grade 
generally  leave  the  intermediate  school  at  the  end  of  the 
eighth  year;  pupils  electing  vocational  or  prevocational 
courses  take  their  ninth-grade  work  in  the  junior  high  school 
and  then  leave  school  and  go  to  work.  There  is,  however, 
a  growing  tendency  for  all  pupils  to  remain  their  full  three 
years  in  the  lower  school,  especially  now  that  they  can  in 
these  three  years  earn  six  or  seven  high  school  credits  as 
well  as  coniplete  the  work  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades. 
Superintendent  Shiels  has,  during  his  administration,  given 
great  impetus  to  this  movement  so  that  the  junior  high 
school  in  Los  Angeles  has  come  to  be  a  decidedly  secondary 
.school  in  character. 

5.  Work  of  the  National  Education  Association. 
Although  the  National  Education  Association  started  late  to 
;  interest  itself  in  the  work  of  the  junior  high  school,  it  has  in 
•the  last  three  years  given  considerable  acceleration  to  the 
movement.  In  1911  there  was  presented  a  report  on  the 
Articulation  of  high  school  and  college.  This  opened  up 
such  a  large  number  of  questions  that  a  commission  was 
appointed  to  work  out  a  reorganization  of  secondary  educa- 
tion. The  commission's  preliminary  report  made  in  1913 
concerned  itself  with  the  subjects  then  taught  in  the  four- 
year  high  school  and  gave  almost  no  indication  of  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  so-called  6-3-3  movement  that  had  already 
.appeared  in  several  cities.  But  the  1914  report  indicates  that 
the  commission  had  practically  become  committed  to  the 
vnew  plan,  saying:  "The  traditional  plan  of  devoting  eight 


HISTORY  OF   THE   MOVEMENT  37 

years  to  elementary  education  is  rapidly  becoming  obsolete. 
....  Consequently  it  will  be  necessary  for  each  committee 
[the  commission  was  divided  into  committees]  in  preparing 
its  report  to  indicate  how  its  recommendations  may  be  ad- 
justed so  as  to  meet  the  needs  of  schools  under  both  plans." 
In  1916  two  committees  of  this  commission  reported.  The 
one  on  English  in  the  Secondary  School  advocated  a  six- 
year  course  in  English  beginning  with  the  seventh  grade. 
The  committee  on  Social  Studies  recommended  a  six-year 
secondary  school  program  adapted  to  both  the  6-3-3  an<^  the 
8-4  plans. 

Meanwhile  the  committee  on  Economy  of  Time,  under  the 
chairmanship  of  Superintendent  H.  B.  Wilson,  reported  in 
1913  on  several  plans  for  shortening  the  elementary  curri- 
culum. Professor  Judd  of  the  committee  reported  a  plan 
which  was  being  tried  out  in  the  University  of  Chicago 
training  schools  whereby  the  eight  years  of  elementary 
work  were  being  done  in  seven  years  and  work  of  grades 
nine  to  fourteen,  inclusive,  in  five  years.  In  1914  the  com- 
mittee reported  that  actual  progress  had  been  miade  in 
formulating  plans  for  economy  of  time  in  the  various 
elementary  subjects.  Significant  also  was  the  report  of  a 
similar  committee  of  the  National  Council  of  the  National 
Education  Association  which  had  been  working  on  the  prob- 
lem since  1908.  This  report  recommended  the  division  of 
educational  curricula  as  follows : 

Elementary   Education Ages  6  to  12 

Secondary  Education  (2  divisions — 4  yrs.  and 

2   yrs.) 12  to  18 

College   18  to  20 

University  (graduate  and  professional)  '.....          20  to  24 

In  1916,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Department  of  Superintend- 
ence in  Detroit  occurred  two  most  interesting  and  far-reach- 


38  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

ing  debates.  The  first  was  a  debate  on  the  question: 
Resolved,  That  the  best  organisation  for  American  schools 
is  a  plan  which  shall  divide  these  schools  into  six  years  of 
elementary  training  and  six  years  of  secondary  training. 
The  affirmative  was  upheld  by  Professor  Charles  H.  Judd, 
Director  of  the  School  of  Education,  University  of  Chicago, 
and  the  negative  by  President  Carroll  G.  Pearse,  of  the 
Milwaukee  State  Normal  School.  With  all  due  regard  to 
the  abilities  of  the  negative  speaker,  the  fact  that  such  a 
well-known  educator  as  Dr.  Judd  should  publicly  advocate 
the  junior  high  school  so  eloquently  and  convincingly  was 
epoch  making.  Hundreds  of  city  superintendents  left  the 
convention  with  the  intention  of  establishing  the  new  plan 
in  their  cities.  The  next  day  the  delegates  to  this  convention 
of  three  thousand  superintendents  were  privileged  to  hear  a 
joint  discussion  of  "The  Minimum  Essentials  vs.  the  Differ- 
entiated Course  of  Study  in  the  Seventh  and  Eighth 
Grades,"  by  Doctors  Coffman,  Bagley,  and  Snedden.  These 
addresses  at  Detroit  and  the  very  strong  paper  by  Pro- 
fessor Johnston  at  the  New  York  City  gathering  in  the  fol- 
lowing summer,  beginning,  "The  junior  high  school  move- 
ment is  sweeping  the  country,"  have  brought  the  subject  of 
this  monograph  into  a  position  of  the  greatest  prominence 
in  the  National  Education  Association. 

6.  The  junior  high  school  throughout  the  country. 
To  trace  the  history  of  this  movement  from  the  time  that 
the  first  real  junior  high  school  was  established  in  Berkeley 
in  1910  would  be  like  an  attempt  to  count  the  springing  up 
of  mushrooms  on  a  spring  morning  after  a  rain.  Notable 
among  the  cities  that  have  committed  themselves  to  the  plan 
are  Houston  and  Detroit.  Two  new  and  beautiful  buildings 
were  constructed  in  the  former  city  to  accommodate  1,000 
pupils  each.  In  the  fall  of  1914  all  the  pupils  of  the  three 


HISTORY   OF    THE    MOVEMENT  39 

grades  following  the  sixth  were  housed  in  these  splendid 
homes.  Detroit  has  built  five  such  junior  high  school  build- 
ings at  a  cost  of  over  half  a  million  dollars.  Salt  Lake  City 
has  organized  three  large  schools  of  this  type.  Former 
Superintendent  Brumbaugh  recommended  to  his  board  that 
the  Philadelphia  school  system  be  organized  on  the  6-6  basis 
with  junior  and  senior  high  schools  of  three  years  each.  The 
University  of  Michigan  is  encouraging  the  establishment  of 
junior  high  schools  by  offering  to  accept  three  entrance 
credits  earned  in  seventh  and  eighth  grades — that  is,  the 
first  two  years  of  intermediate  high  school.  St.  Paul  like- 
wise has  just  adopted  the  plan,  and  is  constructing  a  build- 
ing to  accommodate  a  large  junior  high  school,  with  one  of 
the  largest  athletic  fields  in  Minnesota.  In  that  city  the  sev- 
enth, eighth,  and  ninth  grade  pupils  are  called  Juniors  and 
the  tenth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth  graders,  Seniors.  Lewiston, 
Idaho,  has  a  well-matured  junior  high  school  with  a  splendid 
curriculum.  It  forms  one  of  the  two  wings  of  a  large  cen- 
tral building  that  also  houses  the  senior  high  school.  There 
are  different  principals  for  the  two  schools,  but  the  instruc- 
tors teach  in  both  schools. 

By  the  summer  of  1916  almost  every  state  in  the  Union 
had  one  or  more  of  these  junior  high  schools.  Reports  show 
them  distributed  among  the  several  states  as  follows: 

Indiana    24  New  Jersey 6  Iowa    3 

Minnesota    24  Ohio    5  Connecticut    2 

North    Dakota 20  Oklahoma    5  Kentucky    2 

Pennsylvania    16  Tennessee    5  Maine   2 

California    15  Texas 5  Vermont   2 

Kansas    13  Colorado    4  Alabama    I 

New   York 13  Missouri    4  Arizona    i 

Illinois    9  Montana   4  Arkansas    I 

Massachusetts    8  South  Dakota   4  Florida   I 

Michigan    8  Utah    4  Georgia   I 

Oregon    7  Virginia 4  New  Hampshire   ..   i 

Idaho    6  Wyoming    4  Rhode   Island    I 

Nebraska   ,    .6  Washington   3 

38  STATES  HAD  254  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOLS 


4O  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

The  latest  available  statistics  at  the  end  of  1917  showed 
that  365  school  systems,  including  most  of  the  largest  cities, 
had  organized  junior  high  schools  on  the  general  plan 
described  in  this  book.  The  states  of  Vermont  and  Okla- 
homa are  reorganizing  their  entire  school  systems  to  include 
these  new  institutions  in  every  city  and  town.  When  this 
work  is  completed  the  number  of  junior  high  schools  in  the 
country  will  approximate  1,000. 

7.  Varying  plans  in  operation.  The  reader  will  at 
once  see  the  possibilities  of  variety.  The  simplest  is  the 
Berkeley  system  of  arranging  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth 
grades  in  the  lower  division,  and  tenth,  eleventh  and  twelfth 
grades  in  the  upper  division,  each  grade  consuming  a  year 
of  time.  This  scheme  contains  all  the  points  mentioned  in 
Chapter  One  except  the  saving  of  a  year  of  time.  The  Los 
Angeles  plan  attempts  to  do  in  three  years  the  work  of  the 
seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  and  tenth  grades,  and  consequently 
leaves  only  two  years  for  the  senior  high  school  proper. 
Detroit  and  most  Eastern  cities  follow  the  Berkeley  plan. 
Houston  completes  the  twelve  grades  in  eleven  years.  Its 
secondary  system  might  be  stated  as  follows :  The  seventh, 
ninth,  and  tenth  grades  in  the  intermediate  school ;  the  elev- 
enth and  twelfth  in  the  senior  high  school.  The  eighth 
grade  does  not,  and  never  did  exist. 

In  New  York  City  in  1913  there  were  61,262  pupils  en- 
rolled in  the  high  school.  During  that  year  there  had  been 
20,326  pupils  who  failed  to  complete  their  courses.  Of 
these,  over  12,000  were  in  the  first  year.  The  result  of  this 
loss  of  pupils  has  brought  about  in  that  city  some  radical 
changes  from  the  former  plan. 

The  intermediate  school  was  introduced,  largely  to  reduce 
this  loss  of  attendance.  It  also  plans  to  save  a  year  of  time 


HISTORY   OF    THE    MOVEMENT  41 

for  the  pupils.  The  sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  grades 
are  to  be  grouped  into  an  intermediate  school,  and  the  work 
done  in  three  years.  This  is  to  be  accomplished  by  certain 
modifications  in  the  grammar  school  curriculum,  promotion 
by  studies,  and  other  features  that  are  common  to  the  junior 
high  school. 

Practically  this  same  plan  exists  in  Richmond,  Virginia, 
where,  however,  the  nomenclature  is  different.  In  Rich- 
mond the  name  "intermediate  school"  applies  to  a  school  in 
which  just  the  fifth  grade  is  taught.  After  finishing  this 
intermediate  school  the  pupils  pass  into  the  junior  high 
school,  which  covers  the  work  of  the  sixth,  seventh,  eighth, 
and  ninth  grades.  The  work,  however,  of  these  four  grades 
is  done  in  three  years.  This  junior  high  school  has  most  of 
the  characteristics  that  were  described  in  Chapter  One  of 
this  book  as  being  essential  to  such  an  institution.  It  seems 
that  in  Richmond  the  purpose  of  the  "intermediate  school" 
is  to  prepare  pupils  better  for  the  junior  high  school.  The 
former,  however,  does  not  form  any  part  of  the  latter.  One 
of  the  earliest  junior  high  schools  established  in  that  city 
was  the  Bainbridge  School.  For  a  while,  at  least,  the  fifth 
grade  was  taught  under  the  same  roof. 

In  Fitchburg,  Massachusetts,  there  are  maintained  inter- 
mediate schools  which  are  more  or  less  independent  of  the 
high  school.  The  curricula  offered  in  them  are,  however, 
largely  finishing  curricula,  although  the  schools  maintain 
literary  courses  that  lead  directly  to  the  senior  high  school. 

The  purpose  of  the  Fitchburg  intermediate  school  is  to 
keep  children  in  school  and  to  afford  an  opportunity  to  give 
a  semi-vocational  education  to  over-age  children.  There  are 
similar  intermediate  schools  in  Cleveland,  Albany,  and 
Rochester.  Little  attention  is  given  to  grading  in  any  of 
these  schools.  The  thing  that  counts  for  entrance  is  age. 


42  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH   SCHOOL 

The  intermediate  schools  do  not  form  an  essential  link  in 
the  school  curriculum.  They  aim  to  deal  with  special  cases, 
although  academic  work  is  given  in  connection  with  the 
industrial  work. 

Then  there  is  the  plan  that  makes  no  break  in  the  middle 
of  the  secondary  curriculum  but  completes  the  six  upper 
grades  in  six  or  even  in  five  years. 

Finally,  there  is  the  plan  adopted  in  Pomona,  California, 
which  is  the  one  that  seems  to  be  ideal  to  the  writer.  This 
plan  completes  the  seventh,  eighth,  ninth  and  tenth  grades 
in  three  years,  and  then  devotes  four  years  to  the  eleventh, 
twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth  grades.  This  normally 
carries  the  student  to  his  nineteenth  birthday,  and  gives  him 
a  strong  taste  of  college  life,  vocational  education  that 
carries  him  well  on  toward  maturity,  and  qualifies  him  to 
begin  university  work  where  it  should  begin,  with  the  junior 
certificate.  Such  a  plan  when  adopted  creates  not  simply  one 
new  institution  but  brings  into  life  at  one  and  the  same  time 
two  new  institutions,  a  junior  high  school  and  a  "senior  high 
school — junior  college."  In  this  way  the  high  school  is  not 
merely  robbed  of  its  first  or  first  and  second  years,  but  is 
abolished  altogether  as  not  meeting  the  highest  purposes, 
and  in  its  place  and  in  the  place  of  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  and  the  junior  college  appear  two  entirely  new  insti- 
tutions profiting  by  the  successes  and  failures  of  the  schools 
they  displace. 


CHAPTER  THREE; 

OBJECTIONS  TO  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 
ANSWERED 

In  the  general  plan  of  describing  the  junior  high  school 
movement,  we  have  spoken  of  the  conditions  that  gave  rise 
to  the  movement  and  have  described  its  history.  In  this 
chapter  we  shall  treat  of  the  obstacles — real  and  fancied — 
that  have  stood  in  the  way  of  the  progress  of  the  movement 
and  the  manner  in  which  these  obstacles  have  been,  or  may 
be,  removed.  The  first  obstacle  has  been  the  belief  on  the 
part  of  many  educators  that  the  desirable  results  claimed 
for  the  junior  high  school  are  obtainable  under  the  8-4 
plan.  The  second  obstacle  has  been  the  objection  of  some 
parents  to  the  new  school  arrangement  because  it  caused 
their  children  to  have  to  walk  farther  to  attend  school.  The 
third  obstacle  to  its  success  has  been  the  alleged  unfavorable 
effect  that  it  is  having  upon  elementary-school  teachers. 
The  fourth  obstacle  is  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  college- 
trained  teachers ;  and  the  fifth  the  difficulty  of  inducing  ninth 
grade  pupils  to  attend  a  junior  high  school.  A  sixth 
obstacle  is  the  expense  of  additional  buildings,  grounds,  and 
equipment.  Finally,  it  is  asserted  that  the  conservatism  of 
the  public  will  render  the  establishment  of  junior  high 
schools  well  nigh  impossible. 

1.  The  same  results  obtainable  under  the  old  plan. 
Some  educators  maintain  that  this  new  institution  is  a  fad 
and  will  soon  be  out  of  style.  They  say  that  all  the  good 
things  claimed  for  the  6-3-3  P^an  can  ^  secured  without 
changing  the  old  general  plan  and  especially  without  creat- 
ing a  new  institution.  They  say  that  in  many  grade  schools 
the  work  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  is  taught  depart- 

43 


44  THE;  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

mentally,  with  the  result  that  pupils  are  prepared  for  the 
departmental  work  of  the  high  school.  They  argue  that 
there  would  be  nothing  to  prevent  the  course  of  study  of 
such  a  school  from  being  enriched  by  the  addition  of  a 
foreign  language,  algebra,  and  other  good  things.  In  such 
a  school  the  idea  of  vocation-selection  could  be  .carried  out 
as  easily  as  if  it  were  a  separate  institution. 

To  these  arguments  it  may  be  interposed  that  there  is  no 
particular  harm  in  having  a  new  institution.  The  kinder- 
garten, the  night  school,  summer  sessions,  continuation 
classes,  and  the  high  school  itself  were  new  institutions  at 
one  time  and  can  hardly  yet  be  considered  old  or  unchange- 
ably established.  Even  the  public  school  as  a  state-sup- 
ported institution  is  comparatively  new.  There  can  be  no 
serious  objection  to  the  junior  high  school  because  it  is  new, 
or  because  it  adds  one  more  to  the  number  of  institutions 
already  existing.  As  for  departmentalizing  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades  in  a  grade  building,  it  must  be  admitted  by 
our  opponents  that  this  is  very  difficult  in  the  ordinary  grade 
building  where  there  are  no  more  than  two  teachers  for  the 
two — seventh  and  eighth — grades.  Moreover,  the  rooms 
are  often  dismally  large  and  unadapted  to  classroom  use. 
Most  objectionable  is  the  utter  heterogeneity  of  such  a 
school,  with  its  six-year-olds  getting  in  the  way  of  the 
strenuously  physical  adolescents. 

As  for  enriching  the  curriculum  under  the  old  plan,  the 
matter  of  getting  good  grade  teachers  to  teach  subjects 
that  are  really  high  school  branches  would  be  difficult.  It  is 
hard  enough  to  get  junior  high  school  teachers  to  venture 
to  teach  algebra,  Latin,  and  ancient  history  to  seventh-grade 
pupils.  The  natural  conservatism  of  teachers  would  well- 
nigh  prevent  regular  grade  school  teachers  from  undertak- 
ing to  teach  such  immature  (  ?)  children  the  higher  (  ?) 


OBJECTIONS   ANSWERED  45 

branches.  Besides,  the  grammar  school  course  of  study  has 
in  many  states  become  a  state  adoption,  so  that  ambitious 
cities  and  towns  would  find  themselves  handicapped  on  every 
hand  if  they  attempted  to  try  something  radically  new  and 
different.  In  California,  a  progressive  state,  Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles  under  the  old  laws  found  themselves  so  hedged 
about  by  statutory  restraints  and  state  textbook  laws  that 
they  were  prevented  from  working  out  new  curriculums  on 
a  broad  basis.  We  refer  to  such  laws  as  required  the  use  of 
state-published  textbooks  in  United  States  history,  geogra- 
phy, arithmetic,  etc.,  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades,  and 
to  the  law  requiring  twelve  and  one-half  hours  out  of  the 
twenty  per  week  to  be  devoted  to  the  common  branches. 

Vocation  selection  could  not  succeed  under  the  old  plan. 
In  the  first  place  there  could  be  little  or  no  election  of  sub- 
jects. A  grade  school  with  even  four  teachers  and  160 
pupils  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  could  not  offer  a 
large  number  of  subjects.  With  such  a  limited  number  of 
pupils  many  classes  would  be  so  small  that  they  could  not  be 
maintained  even  if  there  were  seven  or  eight  teachers.  Each 
half  grade  would  contain  approximately  40  pupils.  Of  these 
the  elections  as  tried  out  in  Pomona  run :  English,  40 
(compulsory);  bookkeeping,  25;  algebra,  15;  ancient  his- 
tory, 8 ;  domestic  science,  8 ;  Latin,  8 ;  Spanish,  29 ;  German, 
3 ;  manual  training,  20 ;  general  science,  7.  This  necessitated 
two  classes  in  English;  two  in  Spanish,  and  one  in  each  of 
the  other  subjects — a  total  of  twelve  classes  in  the  B  7.  But 
in  the  two  grades  as  a  whole,  owing  to  conflicts  in  the  pro- 
gram due  to  failures,  etc.,  the  total  number  of  classes  was 
51  in  solids  and  five  in  music,  drawing,  etc. — 56  classes  or 
nine  teachers  for  only  160  pupils !  And  yet  without  election 
of  subjects  and  a  wide  variety  of  options  no  real  vocational 
traits  can  be  discovered. 


46  THE)  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Finally,  the  argument  against  a  separate  institution  for 
pupils  of  ages  twelve  to  fifteen  leaves  out  entirely  the  ques- 
tion of  the  ambition  of  adolescent  children  to  lead  a  life 
urrtfammeled  and  unhampered  by  the  restrictions  and  re- 
pressions incident  to  the  elementary  school  against  which 
they  now  chafe  with  bitterness  and  which  prompts  them  in 
-  large  numbers  to  leave  our  old-time  grade  schools. 

2.  Greater  distance  of  pupils  from  school.  This  is 
usually  true  when  a  building  that  has  been  used  for  grade 
school  purposes  is  taken  entirely  for  junior  high  school  pur- 
poses. Superintendent  Bunker,  of  Berkeley,  tells  of  his 
troubles  in  this  matter.  He  wished  to  use  a  certain  grade 
school  building  for  an  intermediate  school,  the  pupils  to  be 
drawn  from  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  of  several  other 
grammar  buildings  in  the  vicinity.  The  thought  was  then 
to  fill  the  rooms  of  those  buildings  with  the  lower  grade 
pupils  who  had  formerly  attended  the  central  building  now 
to  be  used  as  a  junior  high  school.  This  plan  would  necessi- 
tate a  number  of  changes  in  the  boundaries  of  districts ;  but 
most  objectionable  of  all  changes  was  that  which  took  the 
primary  children  who  lived  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the 
central  building  they  had  been  accustomed  to  attend,  and 
required  them  to  walk  several  blocks  to  another  building. 
The  parents  objected  to  this  change,  and  the  matter  was 
adjusted  by  leaving  the  smallest  tots  in  the  central  building, 
so  that  only  the  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  grade  young- 
sters had  to  walk  the  greater  distance. 

Not  only  did  this  work  hardship  on  the  grade  children 
transferred,  but  it  required  the  seventh  and  eighth  graders 
to  go  much  farther  to  attend  school.  We  may  conceive  of 
a  group  of  nine  buildings,  A,  B,  C,  D,  H,  F,  G,  H,  and  I, 
arranged  as  they  probably  would  be  in  a  city  so  that  / 
would  be  in  the  center  of  the  town,  or,  if  a  large  city,  in  the 


OBJECTIONS   ANSWERED 


47 


center  of  a  ward.  The  other  schools  would  be  equi-distant 
from  I,  so  that  each  occupied  the  center  of  a  district  of,  let 
us  say,  sixty-four  blocks.  The  whole  town,  or  ward,  would 
appear  somewhat  as  in  the  diagram : 


A 

B 

C 

H 

I 

D 

G 

F 

E 

It  is  desired  to  convert  /  into  a  junior  high  school,  draw- 
ing all  seventh  and  eighth  grade  children  from  A,  B,  C,  D, 
H,  F,  G,  and  H,  a  total  of  sixteen  rooms  of  children.  If 
each  building  had  sixteen  rooms,  the  six  lower  grades  would 
probably  occupy  fourteen  rooms  in  each  building.  When 
the  change  is  made,  the  fourteen  rooms  full  of  younger 
children  from  school  I  would  be  distributed  among  the 
eight  other  buildings,  rilling  the  two  rooms  in  each  building 
that  would  be  left  vacant.  The  upper-grade  children  living 
between  buildings  A  and  /,,  B  and  /,  etc.,  would  not  be 
seriously  inconvenienced;  but  those  living  beyond  building- 
A,  building  B,  etc.,  would  have  much  farther  to  go  and 
would  feel  greatly  inconvenienced.  At  first  they  would  be 
greatly  annoyed,  especially  in  foul  weather. 


48  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

The  problem  of  the  smaller  children  can  be  solved  as  it 
was  in  Berkeley  and  other  cities,  by  leaving  the  very  smallest 
children  in  7;  and  it  can  be  permanently  solved  by  leaving 
all  the  six  lower  grades  in  building  /  and  then  building  a 
new  school-house  for  the  junior  high  school  pupils,  some- 
where near  the  center  of  the  whole  district.  The  problem  of 
the  larger  children  has  no  solution ;  it  cannot  be  avoided, 
unless  the  school  department  provides  free  transportation 
for  the  seventh  and  eighth  grade  pupils.  However,  there  is 
compensation  for  the  longer  distance  these  upper-grade 
children  have  to  go  in  the  fact  that  the  ninth-grade  pupils 
would  not  have  so  far  to  go  as  they  would  if  they  attended 
the  senior  high  school,  which  would  be  at  the  center  of  a 
much  larger  district.  There  would,  of  course,  be  compensa- 
tion in  the  better  schooling  and  the  greater  advantages 
offered  by  the  junior  high  school  to  seventh  and  eighth  grade 
pupils  than  they  had  in  the  grade  buildings. 

Finally,  it  may  be  said  that  these  same  problems  arose  at 
the  time  of  the  creation  of  high  schools.  It  is  within  the 
memory  of  many  who  read  this  book  that  the  high  school 
was  conducted  on  the  upper  floor  of  a  grade  building  and 
was  later  housed  in  a  building  by  itself  remote  from  the 
homes  of  many  students.  Nowadays  it  seems  to  be  the 
fashion  to  build  new  high  schools  at  the  edge  of  town  or  in 
the  suburbs  of  a  city  where  plenty  of  ground  can  be  bought 
cheaply  for  agricultural  and  playground  purposes.  We  hear 
little  complaint  of  this  custom,  and  we  are  likely  to  hear 
little  complaint  of  the  junior  high  school  hardships  after  the 
benefits  are  fully  realized. 

3.  Unfavorable  effect  upon  elementary  school  teach- 
ers. Those  who  seem  to  want  to  find  every  source  of  oppo- 
sition to  the  junior  high  school  as  a  distinct  institution  claim 
that  there  is  a  strong  feeling  against  it  among  grade 
teachers.  It  is  alleged  that  they  oppose  the  plan  (a)  because 


OBJECTIONS    ANSWERED  49 

it  overworks  them  and  the  children  in  getting  the  pupils 
ready  for  the  intermediate  high  school  in  six  years ;  that  is, 
that  they  have  to  do  the  eight  grades  in  six  years,  (b)  Sev- 
enth and  eighth  grade  teachers  unable  to  secure  higher  certi- 
fication are  compelled  to  accept  assignment  to  lower-grade 
work,  for  which  they  are  unprepared  and  unadapted  and 
which  is  distasteful  to  them  in  the  extreme,  (c)  The  crea- 
tion of  a  new  institution  diverts  funds  from  the  elementary 
schools,  which  are  already  suffering  for  want  of  equipment, 
and  this  prevents  a  raising  of  the  salaries  of  elementary 
teachers  and  a  consequent  raising  of  the  standard  of  the 
teaching  profession. 

In  answer  to  these  alleged  objections  of  elementary  school 
teachers  it  can  be  shown  that  (a1)  by  elimination  of  the  non- 
essentials  from  the  elementary  curriculum,  by  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  work,  and  by  removal  of  the  decidedly  over-age 
pupils  to  the  intermediate  high  school,  neither  the  pupils  nor 
the  teachers  will  be  overworked  in  preparing  for  the  junior 
high  school  in  six  years.  We  shall  go  into  this  matter  in 
detail  in  the  chapter  on  "The  Effect  upon  the  Elementary 
Grades  Preceding  the  Junior  High  School."  As  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grade  work  has  heretofore  been  very  largely  a 
repetition  of  that  done  in  the  lower  grades,  it  is  absurd  to 
say  that  this  upper-grade  work  is  to  be  crowded  upon  the 
elementary  school.  Furthermore,  the  junior  high  school  is 
to  take  the  children  as  they  come  and  build  upon  the  prep- 
aration already -attained,  not  dictate  what  that  preparation 
must  be.  The  principal  and  teachers  of  the  intermediate 
high  school  will  have  no  authority  to  reject  any  pupil  sent 
to  them.  They  must  take  all  entrants  and  do  the  very  best 
for  them  that  is  possible. 

(b1)  Occasionally,  one  must  admit,  a  hardship  may  be 
worked  upon  a  few  teachers  by  the  inauguration  of  a  new 


5<D  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH   SCHOOL 

arrangement  of  work.  As  a  general  rule,  however,  the 
former  seventh  and  eighth  grade  teachers  have  been  taken 
over  into  the  junior  high  school.  Most  of  the  teachers  that 
have  chosen  this  upper-grade  work  in  the  past  were  teachers 
who  had  had  some  college  work  or  who  were  ambitious 
enough  to  attend  summer  sessions  of  the  universities  to 
broaden  their  mental  horizon.  In  several  cities  with  which 
the  author  is  familiar,  the  upper-grade  teachers  were  given 
a  choice  between  taking  a  lower-grade  assignment,  or  pre- 
paring for  intermediate  work.  In  all  cases  they  were  given 
several  years  in  which  to  make  the  adjustment.  In  Pomona 
they  all  elected  to  prepare  for  the  junior  high  school  work, 
and  none  complained  that  it  was  a  hardship  to  him.  They 
are  thoroughly  enjoying  the  added  professional  interest  and 
zest  that  the  change  has  aroused. 

(c1)  In  answer  to  the  objection  raised  that  the  junior 
high  school's  support  will  take  from  the  elementary  funds, 
it  may  be  answered  that  in  California  it  has  had  just  the 
opposite  effect.  In  this  state  the  junior  high  school  is  sup- 
ported entirely  out  of  high  school  funds,  which  have  been 
increased  by  entirely  new  revenue  in  order  to  meet  this  addi- 
tional burden.  The  elementary  school  funds  have  remained 
the  same  as  they  were  before  the  new  law ;  but  with  only  six 
grades  to  support,  instead  of  eight  as  formerly,  the  ele- 
mentary school  funds  are  proving  ample.  In  fact,  there  is 
such  a  surplus  that  new  buildings  are  being  built,  better 
equipment  is  being  bought,  and  teachers'  salaries  are  being 
raised. 

4.  Difficulty  of  obtaining  college-trained  teachers. 
It  is  claimed  that  the  authorities  have  found  difficulty  in 
securing  college-trained  teachers  for  this  new  institution. 
They  want  high  school  positions  and  consider  it  beneath 
their  dignity  to  teach  the  younger  pupils.  There  is,  of 


OBJECTIONS    ANSWERED  51 

course,  a  real  problem  here,  but  by  no  means  an  unsolvable 
one.  The  problem  really  arises  from  a  lack  of  understand- 
ing of  what  junior  high  school  work  is,  on  the  part  of  college 
graduates  who  have  fitted  themselves  to  teach  in  high  school. 
They  object  not  so  much  to  teaching  younger  pupils  as  to 
teaching  the  common  school  branches.  Unless  they  are 
familiar  with  this  modern  trend  in  education,  they  imagine 
that  it  is  grade  school  work.  They  want  to  teach  algebra 
and  geometry,  not  arithmetic. 

Of  course  they  object  to  the  lower  salaries  ;  but  the  matter 
of  salaries  is  largely  determined  by  the  laws  of  supply  and 
demand.  Where  there  is  a  large  supply  of  new  teachers 
and  few  positions  in  high  school  open,  they  are  compelled 
to  accept  the  lower  salaries.  A  survey  of  the  cities  will 
reveal  the  fact  that  hundreds  of  teachers  holding  high  school 
certificates  are  teaching  in  the  elementary  grades.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  many  such  teachers  learn  to  like  work  with  the 
smaller  children  and  do  not  care  to  change. 

When  it  comes  to  a  matter  of  choice,  many  high-school- 
certified  teachers  choose  to  accept  positions  in  the  junior 
high  schools  of  cities  and  large  towns  rather  than  go  into 
remote  districts  for  strictly  high  school  teaching.  This  they 
do  in  spite  of  the  higher  salaries  paid  in  the  remote  high 
school  districts.  And  well  they  might,  for  the  chance  of 
appointment  to  city  senior  high  schools  from  the  interme- 
diate high  schools  of  the  same  community  is  better  than 
from  a  rural  high  school.  The  reason  is  clear :  The  super- 
intendent and  supervisors  come  to  know  the  teacher's  quali- 
fications better  when  in  the  same  city  than  when  he  is  in  a 
remote  town  or  village.  Some  city  boards  of  education 
make  it  a  rule  that  vacancies  in  the  senior  high  school  shall 
be  filled  by  transfer  from  the  junior  high  schools. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  confidently  asserted  by  the  opponents 


52  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

of  the  6-3-3  Plan  tnat  school  authorities  will  never  get  men 
to  teach  in  the  junior  high  schools,  and  that  these  new 
schools  will  be  over-femininized.  We  cannot  admit  that  this 
will  be  the  case.  It  is  not  so  much  that  the  elementary 
schools  have  paid  lower  salaries  or  that  men  do  not  like  to 
work  with  small  children  that  men  have  been  kept  from 
entering  the  lower-grade  work;  it  has  been  a  matter  of 
supply  and  of  custom.  There  has  been  a  larger  supply  of 
efficient  women  teachers  than  of  even  mediocre  men  teach- 
ers. The  result  has  been  that  boards  have  employed  the  bet- 
ter teachers.  The  custom  once  established  of  employing 
women  in  the  grades,  men  have  shrunk  from  competing,  and 
boards  have  shrunk  from  breaking  the  custom. 

Now  the  intermediate  high  school,  as  an  entirely  new 
institution,  starts  its  career  bidding  for  an  equal  number  of 
men  and  women.  Men  will  not  regard  it  as  trespassing 
upon  woman's  special  field  of  acitvity;  and  we  may  expect 
young  men  to  seek  and  secure  junior  high  school  positions 
along  with  women.  The  adolescent  children  need  the  men 
teachers  as  well  as  the  women.  With  men  already  employed 
in  these  schools  in  large  numbers,  young  college  men  will 
look  upon  such  teaching  as  affording  an  attractive  career. 
We  predict  this  with  certainty,  for  we  see  it  already  going 
on. 

Finally,  both  womten  and  men  are  being  taught  in  train- 
ing schools  to  be  teachers  of  boys  and  girls,  and  less  of  sub- 
jects. Even  the  college-educated  man  or  woman  will  readily 
see  that  it  is  a  far  nobler  occupation  to  train  the  youth  of  the 
land  than  to  impart  information  or  to  add  to  the  sum  total 
of  human  knowledge  by  research  in  the  universities.  When 
this  becomes  their  dominating,  all-absorbing  passion,  they 
will  long  for  the  opportunity  of  coming  into  contact  with  the 
young  folks  at  the  very  earliest  adolescent  period. 


OBJECTIONS    ANSWERED  53 

5.  Difficulty  of  inducing  ninth  grade  pupils  to  attend 
junior  high  school.  When  the  intermediate  schools  were 
first  established  in  Pomona,  the  boys  and  girls  who  were 
ready  for  the  ninth  grade  were  given  a  choice  as  to  whether 
they  would  take  the  next  year's  work  in  intermediate  school 
or  go  on  to  high  school.  They  were  unanimous  to  go  to 
high  school.  They  explained  that  they  had  for  several 
years  been  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  they  could 
experience  all  the  broader  life  of  the  high  school,  including 
participation  in  high  school  athletics,  that  they  would  dis- 
like to  have  to  wait  another  year. 

At  the  end  of  another  semester  the  pupils  of  the  class 
finishing  the  eighth  grade  were  again  permitted  to  choose 
what  they  should  do.  In  this  case  20  per  cent  of  the  pupils 
elected  to  remain  in  the  junior  high  school;  the  others  chose 
the  high  school.  Meanwhile  there  had  been  a  campaign  on 
the  part  of  high  school  pupils  to  induce  the  above  class  to 
choose  the  high  school  for  the  ninth  grade. 

At  the  end  of  another  semester,  the  class  was  required  to 
stay  in  the  intermediate  school.  There  was  some  complaint, 
several  students  dropping  out  of  school  rather  than  remain. 
But  fully  85  per  cent  of  the  pupils  stayed  in  school  to  the 
end  of  the  ninth  grade,  entering  the  senior  high  school  in 
February,  1917.  Several  have  requested  that  they  be  per- 
mitted to  stay  one  year  more  in  intermediate  high.  The 
next  class,  though  not  given  a  choice,  voted  unanimously  to 
stay  in  the  junior  high  school  for  their  ninth-grade  work. 
They  entered  the  senior  high  school,  at  the  end  of  the  year, 
with  seven  credits. 

The  explanation  of  the  results  given  above  are  simple. 
Pupils  accustomed  to  the  old  grade  system  through  the 
eighth  grade  want  to  enter  high  school.  Pupils  that  have 
been  accustomed  to  the  advantages  of  the  junior  high  school 


54  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

in  their  seventh  and  eighth  grades  prefer  to  remain  through 
another  year.  Many  will  then  be  loath  to  leave,  for  they  will 
have  become  attached  to  their  intermediate  school.  But,  if 
we  close  the  intermediate  work  with  the  end  of  the  tenth 
grade,  all  the  pupils  who  can  will  go  on  to  senior  high 
school. 

This  objection  to  the  junior  high  school,  then,  falls  down 
when  the  pupils  become  accustomed  to  the  new  plan.  The 
large  life,  the  social  spirit,  loyalty,  athletics,  interesting  sub- 
jects of  study,  attachment  to  building,  excellent  and  sympa- 
thetic teachers,  all  will  combine  to  make  the  pupil  happy  to 
remain  in  his  junior  high  school  through  the  ninth  and  even 
the  tenth  grade. 

6.  Additional  expense  for  buildings,  grounds,  and 
equipment.  To  make  a  success  of  a  junior  high  school,  it 
is  claimed  by  its  opponents,  there  must  be  central  grounds 
provided,  a  specially  designed  building  constructed,  and 
expensive  equipment  bought.  In  a  small  city  of  20,000 
inhabitants,  where  there  would  be  approximately  1,000 
pupils  in  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  grades,  two  such 
plants  would  be  necessary,  in  order  to  serve  the  community 
well.  If  ample  grounds  were  provided  in  central  locations, 
the  cost  would  be  at  least  $20,000.  Two  buildings,  each  large 
enough  to  house  500  students  doing  departmental  work, 
would  cost  approximately  $100,000;  while  the  equipment 
for  libraries,  laboratories,  gymnasiums,  desks,  etc.,  could 
not  be  provided  for  much  short  of  $20,000.  In  other  words, 
there  would  be  an  outlay  of  $140,000,  for  which  the  city 
would  have  to  bond  itself,  all  as  an  additional  expense 
caused  by  adoption  of  the  6-3-3  plan. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  in  a  city  that  has  reached  its 
maximum  population  and  wealth,  or  in  one  that  is  decreas- 
ing in  both  population  and  wealth,  the  purchase  of  grounds 


OBJECTIONS    ANSWERED  55 

and  the  erection  of  two  such  buildings  as  described  would 
entail  an  entirely  additional  expense  upon  the  community. 
Such  an  additional  outlay  of  funds  might,  however,  be  justi- 
fied on  the  ground  that  the  old  buildings  would  be  annually 
deteriorating,  would  possibly  already  have  passed  beyond 
use.  A  new  building  to  take  the  place  of  an  old  one  might 
already  be  imminently  necessary.  At  any  rate,  some  build- 
ing in  such  a  stationary  community  of  20,000  people  would 
be  old  and  dilapidated — possibly  one  that  had  been  built  to 
accommodate  the  city's  children  when  there  were  not  more 
than  500  of  them  in  all.  Such  a  building  would  be  out  of 
date  and  should  be  condemned  and  wrecked. 

That  this  is  not  random  supposition  is  more  than  evi- 
denced by  the  survey  recently  made  of  the  Denver  schools. 
That  survey  speaks  of  a  large  number  of  Denver's  school 
buildings  as  entirely  unfit  for  school  use.  If  a  live  young 
community  like  Colorado's  capital  contains  many  buildings 
that  should  be  condemned,  surely  a  city  that  has  become  sta- 
tionary or  that  has  begun  itself  to  decrease  in  population 
would  contain  at  least  two  buildings  unfit  for  further  occu- 
pancy. The  new  buildings  needed  for  junior  high  schools 
would  therefore  not  be  additional  expense,  but  would  be 
taking  the  place  of  outworn  structures  that  would  have  to 
be  replaced  anyhow. 

But  most  of  our  American  cities  are  growing  in  popula- 
tion or  wealth  or  both.  Others  that  are  not  increasing  in 
total  population  are  growing  in  number  of  school  children. 
Many  of  our  Western  cities  that  were  formerly  made  u;> 
almost  entirely  of  adults  now  have  a  normal  population  of 
children.  In  such  communities  a  new  school  building  is 
needed  every  few  years.  Long  Beach,  California,  a  city  of 
40,000  people,  has  built  on  an  average  one  school  building 
every  year  for  the  past  twenty  years.  This  is  not  at  all  an 


56  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

unusual  case.  In  such  cities,  to  construct  two  or  four  junior 
high  schools  instead  of  so  many  ward  or  grade  buildings, 
would  not  entail  any  additional  expense  whatever.  The 
present  ward  buildings  when  relieved  of  their  seventh  and 
eighth  grades  would  be  commodious  enough  to  accommo- 
date the  normal  growth  in  school  population  for  several 
years.  The  junior  high  school  buildings  would  merely  ab- 
sorb the  excess  growth  of  school  children,  and  would  be  in 
lieu  of  grade  school  buildings. 

7.  Conservatism  of  the  public.  The  greatest  obstacle 
to  the  success  of  the  junior  high  school  idea  is  the  conserva- 
tism of  the  public.  It  has  not  been  difficult  to  convince 
educators  of  the  desirability  of  introducing  the  plan.  But 
fathers  and  mothers  and  the  great  mass  of  adults  look  with 
disfavor  upon  changes  in  our  educational  system.  To  the 
enthusiastic  teacher  it  seems  incredible  that  there  are  still 
to  be  found  large  numbers  of  people  who  regard  anything 
besides  the  three  "r"s  as  the  "frills"  of  education.  There 
are  those  who  regard  with  disfavor  the  high  school,  indus- 
trial education,  the  kindergarten,  playground  work,  agricul- 
tural courses,  athletics,  college  training,  dramatics,  manual 
training,  printing  and  newspaper  courses,  domestic  science 
and  art,  and  comimercial  education,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
newer  things  that  educators  regard  as  essential.  It  takes 
years — aye,  generations — for  these  things  to  get  into  the 
blood  of  a  people.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  people  look  upon 
the  junior  high  school  with  apathy  and  in  some  cases  with 
actual  hostility. 

There  can  be  only  one  answer  to  this  objection;  namely, 
that  all  new  things  have  been  opposed.  But  by  one  method 
or  another,  great,  compelling  institutions  become  established, 
take  root,  and  grow.  In  one  community  a  campaign  of  en- 
lightenment may  bring  about  adoption  of  the  thing  desired. 


OBJECTIONS   ANSWERED  57 

In  another  community  the  board  of  education  may  establish 
it  by  main  force,  and  continue  it  in  existence  until  opposition 
ceases.  In  still  another  community  it  may  be  brought  about 
quietly  and  without  any  violent  change  through  a  mere 
alteration  of  the  curriculum;.  In  one  state  it  has  been  virtu- 
ally compelled  by  state  legislation  giving  financial  aid  to 
those  communities  establishing  the  institution.  Occasion- 
ally the  chamber  of  commerce  or  some  local  philanthropist 
brings  about  the  change  by  financial  or  other  assistance. 

Finally,  the  junior  high  school  idea  is  in  the  air.  Edu- 
cators are  thinking  hard  about  it;  universities  are  offering 
courses  treating  of  it ;  and  many  school  administrators  have 
just  put  it  into  their  school  systems.  The  leaders  and  advo- 
cates of  the  movement  are  multiplying  rapidly.  The  public 
cannot  long  resist  what  is  proving  to  be  such  a  strong  factor 
in  the  proper  education  of  the  new  generation. 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

EFFECT  OF  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  MOVE- 
MENT UPON  THE  ELEMENTARY  GRADES 

We  have  now  carried  the  discussion  of  the  junior  high 
school  movement  through  three  of  its  phases:  The  causes 
giving  rise  to  it,  its  history,  and  the  obstacles  to  its  success. 
There  now  remains  to  be  discussed  the  effect  of  the  move- 
ment upon  the  elementary  school  grades.  Our  exposition 
of  those  effects  will  reveal  the  facts  that  the  foundational 
subjects  will  have  to  be  very  largely  covered  in  grades  I-VI, 
that  kindergarten  training  will  become  compulsory,  that 
school  attendance  will  have  to  be  better  enforced,  that  all- 
year  school  sessions  are  already  being  carried  on,  that  there 
is  existing  a  movement  for  increasing  greatly  the  excellence 
of  our  teachers,  that  more  emphasis  is  being  placed  on  teach- 
ing pupils  how  to  study,  that  certain  specific  changes  in  the 
elementary  curriculum  are  being  made  and  others  are  sure 
to  be  made,  and  that  non-essentials  in  the  subjects  taught 
will  have  to  be  eliminated. 

1 .  Foundational  subjects  largely  covered  in  grades 
I-VI.  If  secondary  school  work  is  to  be  begun  in  the  first 
year  of  the  junior  high  school,  then  the  foundational  courses 
must  be  completed  in  the  grades  preceding  it.  Of  course, 
this  does  not  mean  that  the  work  of  eight  grades  must  be 
compressed  into  six  years.  Unfortunately  it  has  been  repre- 
sented to  the  public  that  the  new  system  is  to  bear  down 
heavily  upon  the  children,  overcrowding  them  with  study 
and  overtaxing  their  tender  strength.  It  has  been  pictured 
to  us  that  babes  and  innocent  children  who  should  be  spend- 
ing their  time  in  joyful  play  will  be  rendered  nervous  and 

58 


EFFECT   UPON    ELEMENTARY  GRADES  59 

prematurely  serious  by  the  pitiless  taskmasters,  trying  to  do 
the  work  of  eight  grades  in  six  years. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  it  never  should  have  required  eight 
years  to  complete  the  eight  grades  of  the  common  schools. 
The  old  courses  of  study,  the  old  branches  of  study,  and  in 
cases  the  textbooks  have  been  padded  and  repeated  so  as  to 
keep  the  children  busy  for  eight  years,  when  they  could  have 
done,  without  strain,  all  the  really  foundational  work  in  six 
years. 

The  pre-secondary  education  of  our  public  schools  should 
provide  the  pupil  with  the  tools  by  which  cultural  and  voca- 
tional education  are  to  be  worked  out  later.  The  pupil  is  to 
be  able  to  read  silently  and  with  rapidity  the  books  on 
scientific,  literary,  and  historical  subjects  that  will  contain 
the  messages  and  suggestions  of  secondary  education.  He 
is  to  be  able  to  work  things  out  for  himself  with  the  aid  of  a 
dictionary  only.  He  is  to  be  capable  of  obtaining  a  secondary 
education  if  left  alone  on  an  island  with  merely  the  books 
relevant  to  the  subjects,  a  library,  including  dictionaries  and 
encyclopedias.  He  is  not  only  to  be  able  to  read  with  ease 
and  facility,  but  also  to  write  so  that  others  can  read  the 
record  of  his  thoughts  and  so  that  he  himself  at  a  later  time 
can  also  decipher  his  writings.  This  writing  will  include 
not  only  the  formation  of  his  letters  and  other  characters, 
but  the  spelling  of  words  correctly,  the  composition  of  sen- 
tences and  their  punctuation — so  that  no  misunderstanding 
can  ever  arise  as  to  what  his  writings  actually  mean.  Besides 
being  able  to  express  his  thoughts  on  paper,  he  is  to  be 
able  to  express  them  clearly  in  oral  speech. 

Foundational  education  must  also  include  facility  and 
accuracy  in  computations  that  involve  the  fundamental 
operations  of  arithmetic — addition,  subtraction,  multiplica- 
tion, and  division — and  that  involve  fractional  as  well  as 


60  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

whole  numbers.  In  this  age  of  expressing  fractional  num- 
bers by  the  decimal  system,  the  pupil  should  master  deci- 
mals and  possibly  percentage  in  the  elementary  grades. 
There  are  certain  other  foundational  ideas  and  concepts  that 
should  be  acquired — such  as  the  place  ideas  of  geography, 
the  fundamental  concept  of  the  universe,  the  historical  con- 
cept that  we  are  living  at  the  end  of  a  past  that  stretches 
back  hundreds  and  thousands  of  years,  the  political  concept 
that  we  are  a  part  of  a  state  governed  by  regularly  consti- 
tuted authorities,  the  nature  sense  that  we  are  related  to  all 
creatures  in  the  world  of  nature,  the  feeling  of  physical 
health  and  the  knowledge  of  the  laws  that  govern  it,  and  the 
vocational  idea.  These  are  all  fundamental.  The  body  and 
the  mind  must  be  trained  through  physical  education  and 
manual  training. 

That  this  foundation  can  be  laid  in  six  school  years  must 
be  patent  to  an  impartial  observer.  That  the  physical  and 
mental  growth  through  the  progress  of  advancing  age  is 
more  fundamental  than  even  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  is 
also  patent.  The  amount  of  knowledge  to  be  acquired  in 
the  elementary  school  should  not  retard  the  child  beyond 
the  six  or  seven  years  laid  down  by  nature  as  the  time  to 
mature  the  six-year-old  into  an  adolescent.  Fortunately  we 
have  data  now  to  show  that  children  can  in  six  years 
acquire  the  foundational  education  described  above. 

2.  Kindergarten  preparation  required.  We  hesitate 
somewhat  to  use  the  expression  "preparation"  in  connection 
with  any  period  of  education.  The  newer  conception  of  edu- 
cation that  makes  the  schooling  period  not  a  preparation  for 
real  life,  but  real  life  itself,  meets  with  ready  acceptance  by 
the  author.  The  child  is  as  really  living  as  is  the  mature 
man.  And  yet,  without  denying  this  truth,  can  we  not 
regard  each  period  of  life  as  a  preparation  for  all  the  sue- 


EFFECT  UPON    ELEMENTARY   GRADES  6l 

ceeding  periods?  The  mind,  as  well  as  the  body,  may  be 
carefully  prepared  to  do  certain  tasks;  or  it  may  be  unpre- 
pared to  do  certain  tasks.  If  it  is  unprepared  at  this  time  to 
do  certain  tasks,  then  it  may  be  prepared  for  those  tasks  by  a 
certain  course  of  training.  In  this  sense  we  may  speak  of 
the  kindergarten  training  as  preparing  for  the  foundational 
work,  the  foundational  training  as  preparation  for  a  voca- 
tional curriculum,  the  vocational  training  as  preparation  for 
the  pursuit  of  the  particular  vocation  aimed  at.  In  turn,  the 
practice  of  that  vocation  might  become  a  preparation  for 
some  other  vocation  to  be  pursued  later.  In  this  way  every 
course  of  training  enters  into  the  fiber  of  the  man  and  pre- 
pares him  for  well-rounded  mature  manhood. 

The  rapid  and  persistent  growth  of  kindergartens  is 
resulting  in  establishing  the  kindergarten  year  of  training  as 
a  regular  part  of  the  public  school  course.  In  some  cities 
today  a  parent  would  no  more  think  of  sending  his  child  to 
the  first  grade  without  a  year  of  kindergarten  training  than 
most  parents  would  think  of  sending  their  children  to  the  sec- 
ond grade  without  their  having  had  a  year  of  primary  grade 
schooling.  The  laws  may  some  time  make  it  possible  for 
school  authorities  to  require  one  year  of  kindergarten  as 
preparation  for  the  primary  class.  And  unless  the  child 
receives  at  home  the  training  of  mind  and  hand  necessary 
to  do  first-grade  work,  the  school  should  require  that  it  be 
done  in  a  "sub-first"  grade.  We  realize  that  all  the  prob- 
lems connected  with  kindergarten  have  not  been  solved,  but 
it  is  coming  to  be  generally  recognized  that  the  child  gets 
in  it  something  that  he  needs  and  something  that  he  does 
not  ordinarily  get  elsewhere. 

It  is  outside  the  province  of  this  book  to  argue  for  a 
change  in  the  kindergarten  to  adapt  the  work  to  the 
needs  of  the  first  grade,  or  to  argue  for  a  change 


62  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

in  the  primary  so  that  the  powers  acquired  in  the 
the  kindergarten  will  not  be  dissipated  or  left  undeveloped. 
It  is  sufficient  to  know  that  these  adaptations  are  being 
worked  out  to  the  great  benefit  of  the  children.  In  the  new 
curriculums  the  kindergarten  training  is  useful  and  usable. 
It  becomes  the  first  school  grade,  taking  the  child  at  five 
years  of  age.  When  he  becomes  proficient,  when  he  has 
acquired  the  abilities  aimed  at,  vhe  is  promoted  to  the  first 
primary,  which  may  now  be  called  the  second  step  or  grade. 

3.  School  attendance  better  enforced.  In  section  one 
of  this  chapter,  we  outlined  the  mental  and  physical  develop- 
ment to  be  required  for  entrance  to  the  junior  high  school. 
This  standard  is  the  minimum  requirement  to  be  exacted  of 
the  normal  child  having  a  normal  opportunity.  It  has  been 
tested  and  found  possible  of  accomplishment  in  six  years, 
beginning  at  the  age  of  six.  We  shall  now  describe  the  con- 
ditions which  would  make  it  easier  to  accomplish  the  devel- 
opment in  six  years.  If  all  these  conditions  are  present,  100 
per  cent  of  normal  children  should  reach  the  junior  high 
school  at  twelve  years  of  age  in  100  per  cent  mental  and 
physical  condition.  Practically  all  children  slightly  below 
normal  at  the  beginning  of  school  age  should  make  their 
grades  in  the  process  of  these  six  years  of  schooling  and 
should  enter  the  junior  high  school  with  their  first  grade 
classmates.  Those  above  normal  or  above  the  average  could 
acquire  the  knowledge  required  and  the  necessary  develop- 
ment in  six  years,  even  though  several  of  the  conditions 
described  in  this  chapter  were  lacking. 

The  first  condition  is  a  year,  more  or  less,  of  kindergarten 
training  as  a  foundation  for  the  work  of  the  primary.  This 
year  of  work  should  constitute  Step  One  of  a  regular  series 
of  seven  steps  leading  to  the  junior  high  school.  Steps  Two 
to  Seven,  inclusive,  would  then  include  the  six  years  of  grade 


EFFECT   UPON    ELEMENTARY  GRADES  63 

school  work  in  which  the  tools  should  be  acquired — tools 
that  will  serve  to  build  the  superstructure  of  secondary  edu- 
cation as  carried  on  in  the  schools,  or  will,  in  a  pinch,  so  to 
speak,  serve  to  build  a  vocational  education  and  a  cultural 
education,  while  the  pupil  is  earning  a  livelihood,  if  the 
builder  has  the  strength  of  character  necessary. 

The  second  condition  is  regular  school  attendance.  A 
large  percentage  of  retardation  is  brought  about  by  failure 
to  attend  school  regularly.  A  day's  absence  can  not  easily 
be  made  up;  a  week's  absence  may  so  break  the  continuity 
of  the  mental  development  that  the  individual  will  feel  the 
gap  through  life.  The  wound  may  heal,  but  the  scar  will  be 
painfully  apparent.  A  month's  absence  is  in  many  cases 
fatal:  the  pupil  would  do  well  to  repeat  the  whole  semes- 
ter's work  rather  than  try  to  struggle  through  with  the 
handicap.  Happy  is  that  pupil  who  lives  in  a 
community  where  promotions  are  made  every  eight  or  ten 
weeks ;  or,  better  still,  perhaps,  where  Dr.  Frederick  Burk's 
anti-lockstep  methods  prevail.  This  injury  is  just  as  great 
whether  the  absence  comes  all  in  one  large  block  or  is  scat- 
tered along  through  the  semester  a  day  or  a  half  day  at  a 
time.  Nor  does  this  interruption  in  consecutive  mental  de- 
velopment take  account  of  the  injury  to  the  habits  of  work 
sustained  by  the  pupil.  If  anything,  this  weakening  of  the 
habit  of  continuous  application  is  more  injurious  to  the 
pupil  than  is  the  damage  to  the  continuity  of  his  mental 
development. 

Aside  from  the  loss  to  the  individual,  one  must  consider 
the  loss  to  society  and  to  the  State.  Nearly  every  state  in 
the  Union  has  a  compulsory-attendance  law,  and  it  may  be 
assumed  that  the  State  and  society  regard  a  common  school 
education  as  vital  to  their  interests,  else  they  would  not  be 
so  insistent  on  enacting  laws  rendering  it  compulsory  and 


64  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

in  some  cases  actually  writing  it  into  the  constitution.  The 
State,  it  is  said,  regards  an  educated  electorate  as  necessary 
to  the  perpetuity  of  democratic  government.  Many  of  the 
evils  that  have  befallen  popular  government  are  traceable  to 
the  lack  of  a  common  school  education  on  the  part  of  the 
voters.  We  may  assume,  then,  that  society  through  the 
organization  of  the  state  is  in  deadly  earnest  when  it  enacts 
laws  compelling  parents  to  send  their  children  to  the  public 
schools  until  those  children  secure  an  education. 

Regular  attendance  on  the  part  of  every  pupil  every  day 
that  school  is  in  session  is  essential  to  the  welfare  of  the 
individual  and  of  society.  Self-interest  of  the  individual 
demands  it ;  society,  with  all  the  authority  of  organized  gov- 
ernment, requires  it  by  drastic  laws  and  the  exercise  of  its 
irresistible  police  power. 

4.  An  all-year  school  session.  The  normal  child  with 
a  normal  opportunity  may  still  find  it  inconvenient  to  attend 
school  in  certain  seasons.  Many  children  find  it  harmful  to 
their  health  to  brave  the  winter's  severe  cold  and  snow; 
others  have  to  stay  out  to  help  with  the  planting  or  with 
the  harvests ;  while  still  others  need  their  vacations  not  in 
the  summer,  but  in  the  winter,  spring,  or  fall.  Then,  there 
is  a  large  group  of  children  who  find  the  long  summer  vaca- 
tion irksome  and  unprofitable.  It  is  believed  by  some  edu- 
cators and  parents  that  children  would  be  better  off  if  they 
could  attend  school  through  the  year,  with  short  vacations 
of  a  week  or  a  fortnight  at  regular  intervals,  say  at  Christ- 
mas, Easter,  in  early  July,  and  in  October.  The  year  might 
be  divided  into  four  or  more  equal  terms,  and  promotions 
made  more  frequently  than  at  present. 

Suppose  that  the  year  were  divided  into  six  terms  of  eight 
weeks  each,  and  that  one  week's  vacation  should  be  given  as 
indicated  above.  There  would  still  be  a  few  holidays  scat- 


EFFECT  UPON    ELEMENTARY   GRADES  65 

tered  through  the  year  sufficient  to  break  the  monotony. 
Then  let  it  be  provided  that  four  terms'  attendance  be  the 
minimum  required  by  law.  Forty  weeks'  work  might  then 
be  equivalent  to  a  grade.  This  number  of  weeks'  work 
would  be  somewhat  more  than  the  average  at  present.  While 
thirty-five  or  thirty-six  is  the  average  for  the  cities,  twenty 
seven  or  twenty-eight  is  the  average  for  rural  districts  and 
smaller  towns.  If  a  child  in  a  village  school  can  now  com- 
plete a  grade  in  twenty-eight  weeks,  surely  forty  weeks 
should  be  ample  anywhere. 

The  six-grade  elementary  course  could  then  with  ease  be 
completed  by  the  normal  child  in  six  years  of  forty  weeks 
each.  The  subnormal  or  the  slower  pupil  might  take  six 
years  of  forty-eight  weeks  each  to  do  the  work.  The  bright- 
est pupils  might  possibly  do  the  six  grades  in  six  years,  some 
of  only  thirty-two  weeks  attendance  and  others  forty  weeks, 
or  some  of  forty-eight  weeks  and  others  of  sixteen  weeks. 
This  would  give  opportunity  for  the  parents  of  the  brightest 
pupils  to  travel  with  their  children.  Or  pupils,  needing  the 
country  life,  might  be  sent  to  a  ranch  or  farm  for  a  few 
months  at  a  time  when  the  weather  would  be  agreeable.  One 
could  multiply  indefinitely  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from 
such  a  plan. 

Some  decided  advantages  in  the  plan  as  a  whole  should 
be  pointed  out  as  bearing  upon  the  success  of  the  six-six, 
or  six-three-three,  or  six-three-four  plan  that  we  have  been 
advocating.  We  have  repeatedly  said  that  it  is  vital  to  this 
plan  that  children  enter  upon  the  secondary  course  at  twelve 
years  of  age;  that  is,  at,  or  immediately  before,  the  begin- 
ning of  adolescence.  It  is  also  much  to  be  desired  that  all 
pupils  complete  the  foundational  courses  of  study  before 
they  enter  the  secondary  school.  Any  arrangement  that  will 


66 

contribute  to  making1  both  of  these  possible  should  receive 
the  favorable  consideration  of  educators  and  the  public. 

There  is  the  case  of  the  child  whose  parents  move  fre- 
quently, perhaps  from  one  state  to  another.  These  pupils 
often  form  a  considerable  part  of  our  Far-Western  pupils. 
In  moving  they  find  it  difficult  to  get  an  exact  adjustment. 
Many  Western  schools  have  an  established  rule  of  placing 
the  newcomer  in  a  class  at  least  a  half  grade  below  the  one 
which  he  would  have  been  entitled  to  enter  in  his  Eastern 
home.  This  is  a  common  practice,  and  has  much  justifica- 
tion from  the  point  of  view  of  the  school  teacher  and  in 
advantages  to  the  pupil.  Ordinarily  it  takes  some  time  to 
become  adjusted  to  a  new  school  and  a  new  plan  of  work. 
It  ought  not,  however,  in  all  conscience,  to  take  a  half  year. 
If  the  terms  are  short,  say  of  two  months'  duration,  the 
pupil  will  be  put  back  only  eight  weeks,  and  these  eight 
weeks  he  can  easily  make  up  in  one  forty-eight-week  school 
year. 

While  not  essential  to  the  success  of  the  six-year  elemen- 
tary school  plan,  an  all-year  school  of  forty-eight  weeks  with 
six  promotions  to  the  year,  will  contribute  greatly  to  making 
it  function  properly  and  adequately. 

5.  Excellent  teachers  employed.  In  the  new  system 
of  things  we  must  have  teachers  who  are  in  sympathy  with 
progress  even  though  it  clash  with  their  preconceived  ideas. 
For  instance,  a  teacher  who  has  not  been  teaching  percent- 
age in  the  sixth  grade  might  conceivably  set  the  whole 
weight  of  her  convictions  against  succeeding  in  getting-  the 
pupils  to  grasp  the  subject  in  that  grade.  But  most  normal- 
trained  teachers  are  open-minded  and  glad  to  try  sympatheti- 
cally any  plan  that  looks  toward  a  more  practical  education 
for  her  pupils.  Normal  schools  have  in  several  cases 
.adapted  their  organization  to  meet  the  needs  of  an  elemen- 


UPON    ELEMENTAKY  GRADES  67 

tary  course  of  six  years.  It  is  important  that  the  co-opera- 
tion of  teacher-training  institutions  be  secured  in  furthering 
the  success  of  the  six-six  plan. 

The  kindergarten  teacher  of  the  future  should  receive  in 
normal  school  a  general  professional  training  that  will  in- 
clude methods  in  the  lower  primary  grades.  She  should  do 
some  practice  teaching  in  the  primary — sufficient  to  get  the 
point  of  view  of  the  primary  teacher  and  to  understand  the 
needs  of  the  children.  Only  in  this  way  will  she  realize 
what  is  expected  of  her  in  the  kindergarten.  While  this  is 
an  age  of  specialization,  it  is  also  an  age  of  co-operation,  of 
doing  things  by  team-work.  The  teacher  of  Step  One  must 
feel  that  she  is  doing  a  foundation  work  without  which  the 
steps  higher  up  cannot  be  expected  to  succeed. 

The  primary  teacher  should  likewise  study  in  the  normal 
school  the  m'ethods  and  aims  of  the  kindergarten.  In  teach- 
ing pupils  of  Step  Two,  she  should  have  in  mind  what  has 
been  accomplished  in  the  previous  year  of  the  child's  life. 
She  should  be  careful  not  to  bore  the  pupils  with  doing  the 
things  they  have  already  done;  but  knowing  the  faculties 
that  have  been  trained  in  the  kindergarten,  she  should  give 
new  work  to  continue  the  development.  Constant  associa- 
tion with  Step  One  teachers  will  keep  her  fresh  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  accomplishments  of  her  pupils.  Interchange  of 
teachers  may  occasionally  be  for  the  best.  Certainly  primary 
teachers  may  profit  by  having  the  kindergarten  teachers 
come  into  their  rooms  to  give  certain  lessons  in  concentra- 
tion, motor  control,  handwork,  etc. 

All  along  the  line  the  teachers  must  adapt  themselves  and 
their  methods  to  the  new  point  of  view.  The  uppermost 
thought  must  be:  We  must  lead  the  pupils  through  the 
foundational  work  in  six  years;  we  must  not  be  slaves  to 
our  textbooks ;  we  must  feed  the  child's  mind  and  body  as 


68  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

fast  as  its  development  will  permit;  we  must  not  withhold 
what  the  child  is  ready  for,  we  must  not  repeat  when  repeti- 
tion will  deaden.  The  motto  must  be:  See  to  it  that  the 
child  works  up  to  its  full  capacity.  Anything  short  of  that 
is  wasted  time. 

6.  Teaching  how  to  study.  The  largest  problem  is 
teaching  the  pupils  how  to  work.  In  most  cases  this  means 
teaching  them  how  to  study.  However,  it  may  be  easier  to 
teach  other  forms  of  work  than  study.  The  same  principles 
are  involved:  Concentration,  overcoming  inertia,  keeping 
at  the  thing,  an  ever  present  feeling  of  progressing  in  the 
job,  revolving  the  matter  in  one's  mind,  relating  it  to  one's 
store  of  information,  analyzing  the  problem,  getting  the  solu- 
tion, reviewing  what  has  been  done.  In  these  days  when 
supervised  study  is  the  topic  uppermost  in  the  minds  of 
teachers,  and  with  several  good  books  on  the  subject,  school 
men  and  women  ought  to  find  it  an  easy  matter  to  think  out 
or  work  out  methods  for  teaching  children  how  to  study  and 
work. 

The  best  time  to  teach  children  how  to  work  is  in  the 
'grades,  and  before  they  have  formed  bad  habits.  Some  one 
has  said  that  it  is  worse  for  the  individual  to  get  a  lesson  in 
the  wrong  way  than  not  to  try  to  get  it  at  all.  The  corollary 
is  that  a  bad  habit  once  formed  is  harder  to  overcome  than 
a  good  habit  is  to  acquire.  At  any  rate,  bad  habits  of  work 
should  be  discouraged,  and  every  effort  made  to  help  the 
pupil  early  to  form  good  habits. 

Good  methods  of  work  can  be  learned  in  the  kindergarten. 
Wasting  or  scattering  one's  interests  and  attention  should 
be  prevented.  The  teacher  herself  should  set  a  good  example. 
One  thing  at  a  time,  is  a  very  good  rule.  The  most  orderly 
school  room  is  where  the  hum  of  industry  is  ever  present. 
'The  teacher  must  early  learn  to  distinguish  disorderly  noise 


UPON   ELEMENTARY  GRADES  69 

from  orderly  noise,  a  vacant  look  from  rapt  attention,  a 
mind  carelessly  passing  from  one  thing  to  another  from  a 
mind  with  a  definite  goal  in  view,  accidental  success  from 
organized  success.  No  matter  how  much  the  teacher  may 
believe  in  free  and  undirected  work  from  her  pupils,  she 
must  understand  from  the  beginning  that  many  children 
must  be  led  time  and  time  again  through  the  process  of  doing 
a  piece  of  work — which  is,  of  course,  solving  a  problem. 
Originality  is  a  quality  decidedly  to  be  developed  and  en- 
couraged; but  ability  to  work,  to  study,  and  to  solve  prob- 
lems is  of  greater  importance. 

There  is  not  space  in  this  brief  section  to  go  into  methods 
of  teaching  pupils  how  to  study.  Nevertheless,  it  occurs  to 
the  writer  that  the  approach  to  the  task  may  be  most  easily 
made  through  teaching  the  pupil  how  to  work  at  some  task 
other  than  getting  a  lesson  out  of  a  book.  Some  of  our 
most  difficult  problems  are  not  propounded  to  us  from  the 
pages  of  a  book.  There  is  fundamentally  no  difference  be- 
tween these  problems:  Roping  a  trunk,  reading  (remember 
that  reading  is  getting  the  thought)  a  passage  of  Browning, 
solving  a  problem  in  algebra,  sewing  a  patch  on  an  apron, 
building  a  house  out  of  blocks,  writing  a  sentence  using  the 
word  "cat."  But  there  is  a  good  deal  of  difference  in  the 
ease  with  which  you  can  teach  a  child  how  to  do  these  vari- 
ous tasks.  There  is  less  concentration  required  of  a  person 
in  working  with  an  object  that  he  can  reach  all  around  than 
with  one  that  is  on  a  flat  surface ;  with  the  latter  than  with 
one  that  you  can  neither  see  nor  feel,  that  exists  only  in  the 
mind. 

Let  us  illustrate  by  reference  to  a  study  of  art.  Suppose 
you  wish  to  bring  to  a  person's  mind  a  concept  of  a  battle. 
The  easiest  way  would  be  to  take  him  to  an  elevation  and 
let  him  witness  a  real  battle;  the  next  would  be  to  act  it 


7O  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

upon  a  stage;  the  next  to  have  it  represented  by  statues  of 
men  and  figures  of  cannon,  etc. ;  the  next  would  be  in  bas- 
relief  ;  the  next  in  painting ;  and  most  difficult  of  all,  in  writ- 
ten or  printed  language. 

Likewise  the  approach  to  study  should  be  first  with  real 
things,  then  with  symbols  in  the  order  we  have  mentioned 
above.  Also  this  is  true  with  the  method  used  in  teaching 
the  child  to  solve  problems,  to  work,  to  concentrate.  The 
earliest  task  in  the  kindergarten  is  to  construct  something 
real,  then  something  that  resembles  the  real,  then  a  picture, 
finally  a  verbal  description  or  explanation  of  the  thing  con- 
structed. In  the  same  order  will  he  get  his  thoughts,  his 
ideas  of  things. 

If  study  is  approached  in  this  way,  the  child  will  have 
acquired  good  habits  of  study  before  he  reaches  the  point 
where  he  is  to  get  lessons  out  of  a  book.  When  he  does 
reach  that  point,  he  will  apply  the  same  principles  and  habits 
to  studying  a  printed  lesson  that  he  has  been  applying  to  an 
object  lesson.  He  will  meet  with  the  same  success.  He  will 
be  able  to  study  effectively. 

7.  Specific  changes  in  the  elementary  courses  of 
study.  Assuming  that  the  subjects  will  remain  the  same 
as  in  the  immediate  past,  it  may  be  worth  while  (pending 
the  evaluation  of  these  subjects)  to  suggest  some  necessary 
changes  in  the  curiculum  brought  about  by  making  the  sec- 
ondary courses  start  with  the  completion  of  the  sixth  grade. 
Several  foundational  subjects  that  had  been  delayed  until 
the  seventh  or  eighth  grade  must  be  hereafter  taught  before 
the  seventh  grade  is  reached,  and  other  adjustments  will 
have  to  be  made. 

In  many  schools  oral  reading  from  seventh  and  eighth 
readers  has  been  carried  on  in  the  corresponding  grades. 
Oral  reading  as  a  formal  subject  will  close  with  the  end  of 


EFFECT   UPON   ELEMENTARY   GRADES  71 

the  sixth  grade.  When  one  considers  the  small  use  a  person 
makes  of  oral  reading,  the  wonder  is  that  it  has  continued 
so  long  to  occupy  the  serious  attention  of  upper-grade  pupils. 
Spelling  as  a  subject  occupying  a  recitation  period  will,  and 
should,  be  discontinued  before  the  end  of  the  new  elemen- 
tary course.  By  careful  measurement  Ayers  has  ascertained 
that  sixth-grade  pupils  can  spell  correctly  92  per  cent  of  the 
975  words  that  the  average  intelligent  adult  uses  in  writing. 
One  does  not  necessarily  need  to  know  how  to  spell  words 
that  he  never  writes  but  uses  only  in  speaking.  The  eighty- 
five  words  that  a  particular  pupil  of  the  sixth  grade  does  not 
know  how  to  spell  correctly  should  be  ascertained  in  each 
individual  case.  That  pupil  may  then  learn  in  ten  lessons 
how  to  spell  the  words  that  he  did  not  know  how  to  spell. 
What  drudgery  and  loss  of  time  for  a  pupil  to  study  and 
recite  on  words  that  he  has  known  how  to  spell  for  years ! 
Besides,  there  is  still  some  hope  that  a  sensible  form  of 
simplified  spelling  may  come  into  fashion  in  the  near  future. 
Geography  mlust  be  carried  lower  in  the  grades,  and  all 
the  essential  information  conveyed  in  our  present  textbooks 
must  be  gathered  by  the  pupil  before  reaching  the  seventh 
grade.  This  may  necessitate  the  rewriting  of  our  textbooks 
in  more  simple  language.  The  large  output  of  easily  under- 
stood geographical  readers  that  we  are  at  present  enjoying 
will  contribute  greatly  to  the  success  of  this  new  plan.  Books 
of  travel,  descriptions  of  customs  and  manners  of  foreign 
people,  stories  of  the  industries,  interesting  accounts  of 
things  grown  from  the  soil,  bird  books  and  animal  books, 
and  pictures  that  really  tell  things — all  adapted  to  the  under- 
standing of  elementary  school  children — are  pouring  from 
the  press.  God  bless  the  devoted  men  and  women  that  are 
toiling  ceaselessly  to  bring  things  within  the  comprehension 
of  the  little  folks ! 


72  THE  JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

It  is  pleasing  to  note  the  success  that  teachers  are  having 
in  teaching  addition  and  subtraction  in  the  second  grade, 
multiplication  and  division  in  the  third.  The  fourth  grader 
masters  these  operations,  memorizes  the  tables,  and  passes 
on  to  fractions.  The  fifth  and  sixth  graders  with  a  good 
foundation  in  arithmetic  do  the  processes  of  fractions,  deci- 
mals, and  percentage.  True,  they  cannot  untangle  the  com- 
plicated problems  often  found  in  textbooks  (but  never  found 
in  actual  business)  ;  but,  if  the  textbook  writers  really  wish 
to  demonstrate  their  ingenuity  in  making  up  puzzles,  let 
them  insert  them  in  books  on  higher  mathematics  or  in  com- 
mercial calculuses,  books  intended  to  develop  logic  and  pro- 
found reasoning  faculties.  We  are  not  expecting  the 
child  to  perform  all  possible  operations  in  the  grade  school ; 
we  wish  merely  to  give  the  child  command  of  the  tools  with 
which  to  work.  Anyhow,  it  is  an  injustice  to  the  pupil  to 
make  him  work  out  nerve-racking  problems  by  arithmetic, 
when  he  is  to  be  shown  an  easier  way  later  through  algebra. 

Finally,  history  (if  the  biographies  and  exciting  events 
contained  in  historical  readers  can  be  classed  as  history) 
may  be  begun  in  earnest  in  the  fifth  grade,  read  and  studied. 
Take  any  one  of  the  several  very  effective  books  now  on  the 
market,  work  through  the  stories  and  biographies  of  the 
period  of  discoveries  and  the  colonial  period  in  the  first 
semester,  and  through  the  national  period  in  the  second 
semester.  The  pupil  will  then  have  a  good  grasp  of  the 
story  of  the  United  States.  A  good  textbook  on  the  back- 
ground of  American  history  in  Europe  to  the  settlement  of 
Virginia  could  be  completed  in  the  first  three  fourths  of  the 
sixth  grade.  The  last  one  fourth  could  be  spent  in  studying 
the  settlement  and  development  of  the  colonies  and  the 
causes,  events,  and  immediate  results  of  the  Revolution.  A 
year  of  real  national  history,  including  civics,  could  be  re- 


EFFECT   UPON    ELEMENTARY  GRADES  73 

quired  of  first,  second,  or  third  year  junior  high  school 
pupils.  This  last  year's  work  could  be  so  thoroughly  done 
that  senior  high  school  American  history  could  be  a  fairly 
analytical  study  of  some  short  but  important  period — as  the 
post-Civil  War  period — or  of  some  important  movement  or 
institutional  development. 

8.  Non-essentials  in  particular  subjects  eliminated. 
It  is  highly  important  to  the  success  of  the  six-year  elemen- 
tary curriculum  as  well  as  to  the  children  of  our  country 
that  the  work  of  eliminating  the  padding  should  be  prose- 
cuted with  vigor.  Stripped  of  the  non-essentials,  most  com- 
mon school  subjects  can  be  mastered  in  the  first  six  grades 
without  crowding  or  overworking  the  pupils.  Thanks  to 
several  enterprising  school  men  and  textbook  producers,  we 
now  have  good  sets  of  "minimum  essentials"  in  nearly  all 
the  subjects.  Nevertheless,  this  pruning  must  go  further, 
and  more  dead  limbs  must  be  cut  from,  the  branches. 

It  seems  1o  the  author  that  geography,  history,  arith- 
metic, English  composition,  manual  training,  and  art  need 
complete  revision.  What  joy  it  would  be  to  lop  off  from 
elementary  school  geography  all  the  motions  of  the  earth, 
mioon,  winds,  and  currents,  also  names  of  insignificant  capi- 
tals, rivers,  capes,  bays,  and  the  impossible-to-be-remem- 
bered  minerals  and  manufactured  articles  of  the  hundred  or 
more  states  and  countries  of  the  world !  An  excellent  eighth- 
grade  teacher  confessed  to  the  author  that  he  had  to  look  up 
very  carefully  the  causes  of  the  seasons,  eclipses,  tides, 
winds,  and  o:ean  currents  every  time  he  came  to  these  sub- 
jects in  his  teaching  of  geography,  and  he  had  been  teaching 
this  grade  for  twelve  years !  What  joy  to  lop  off  names  and 
dates  of  discoverers  and  explorers  that  mean  nothing  to  us ; 
names,  dates,  locations,  and  misfortunes  of  all  the  colonial 
enterprises;  Indian  massacres  back  in  New  England  and 


74  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Virginia ;  the  colonial  wars ;  battles,  generals,  size  of  armies, 
maneuvers,  terms  of  surrender;  expositions,  presidential 
trips,  cabinet  officers,  fires,  floods,  and  other  disasters !  What 
joy  to  lop  off  apothecaries'  and  avoirdupois  weights,  paper- 
ing and  plastering  of  imaginary  walls,  multiplication  and 
addition  of  denominate  numbers,  bank  and  true  discount, 
square  and  cube  root,  longitude  and  time!  And  so  with 
description  and  narration,  exposition  and  argument,  when 
the  pupils  cannot  even  write  complex,  compound,  or  even 
simple  sentences!  Then  there  is  the  making  of  hatracks, 
bootjacks,  and  bric-a-brac,  with  planes,  vises,  and  draw 
knives,  when  the  home  will  never  need  the  useless  product 
and  will  never  possess  a  single  one  of  the  tools!  It  would 
seem  better  to  learn  how  to  sharpen  pencils  with  a  jack- 
knife  and  to  use  a  screwdriver,  a  handsaw,  and  a  hammer. 
Lastly,  how  much  time  we  waste  and  what  bad  habits  we 
form  in  dabbling  in  paints,  making  incongruous  and  absurd 
valentines,  paper  napkins,  masks,  penwipers,  and  calendars ! 

From  the  foregoing  paragraphs  it  is  evident  that  much 
courageous,  painstaking  work  is  before  us,  but  we  must 
give  credit  for  mJuch  that  has  already  been  done.  A  good 
start  has  been  made ;  but  we  must  not  stop  until  the  task  is 
finished.  The  junior  high  school  movement  is  reacting  on 
the  elementary  school.  The  time  is  auspiciots,  the  oppor- 
tunity is  inviting.  Where  are  the  daring  spirits  to  blaze  the 
way  ?  They  will  make  mistakes,  they  will  be  severely  criti- 
cized, their  plans  will  have  to  be  reviewed  anc  thoughtfully 
worked  out  by  practical  teachers  in  the  field ;  but  eventually, 
all  credit  to  those  who  dare  to  be  pathfinders ! 

Summary.  With  this  chapter  we  close  our  discussion  of 
the  junior  high  school  movement.  We  have  analyzed  the 
causes  that  gave  rise  to  it  and  that  justify  its  continuance. 
We  have  briefly  traced  its  history.  We  have  examined  the 


EFFECT   UPON    ELEMENTARY  GRADES  75 

objections  that  have  been  raised  against  it.  We  have  dis- 
cussed the  actual  and  prospective  changes  in  the  elementary 
school  necessitated  by  this  movement. 

We  proceed  now  to  a  treatment  of  the  junior  high  school 
as  a  functioning  institution. 


It  was  asserted  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book  that  four 
of  society's  many  problems  are  to  be  solved,  and  to  some 
extent  are  being  solved,  by  the  junior  high  school  as  an  insti- 
tution. We  have  tried  to  give  the  reader  a  clear  idea  of  those 
problemte.  Later  we  showed  that  the  rapid  adoption  of  the 
junior  high  school  by  so  many  cities  and  towns  and  its 
advocacy  by  so  many  educators  have  made  its  success  all 
but  certain.  Through  all  these  practical  applications  the 
school  has  remained  true  to  its  purposes,  although  it  has  not 
in  every  case  tried  to  do  all  that  is  expected  of  it.  Mean- 
while there  have  arisen  many  objections,  obstacles,  and 
aspersions  to  which  we  were  compelled  to  devote  a  chapter. 
The  objections  have  been  answered,  the  aspersions  refuted, 
and  plans  given  for  removing  the  obstacles.  The  reor- 
ganization of  secondary  education  and  the  establishment  of 
a  junior  high  school  have  necessitated  many  changes  in  the 
elementary  schools.  Some  of  these  adjustments  have  already 
been  started  and  are  well  under  way.  For  the  others  we 
have  offered  such  suggestions  as  our  limited  space  and  the 
exceeding  newness  of  the  problems  would  permit. 

The  junior  high  school  is  not  a  panacea  for  all  social  and 
educational  ills.  For  the  limited  ills  set  forth  we  believe 
that  this  school  will  prove,  and  is  to  a  very  considerable  ex- 
tent already  proving,  a  cure.  It  remains  for  us,  in  the  chap- 
ters that  follow,  to  show  how  the  junior  high  school  acts  in 
operation,  how  it  mteets  the  demands  placed  upon  it.  We 
shall  discuss  these  matters  under  the  head  of  curriculums, 
principal  and  teachers,  teaching  in  the  school,  administra- 

76 


COURSES   OP   STUDY  77 

tion,  and  relations  with  the  higher  secondary  school.  Finally 
we  shall  sketch  our  ideas  of  an  ideal  junior  high  school. 

In  discussing  the  subjects  to  be  taught  in  junior  high 
school  we  adhere  to  the  terminology  as  defined  by  the  Com- 
mittee on  College  Entrance  Requirements.  "Program  of 
studies"  refers  to  all  the  subjects  taught  in  the  secondary 
school  without  reference  to  organization  of  these  subjects. 
A  "subject"  is  a  branch  of  learning  separate  and  distinct  in 
subject-matter,  as  Latin,  algebra,  or  history.  A  "course"  is 
the  subject-matter  of  a  subject  offered  within  a  definite 
period  of  time,  as  first  year  Latin,  second  year  algebra, 
ancient  history,  (since  this  course  by  general  usage  is  known 
to  be  a  definite  year  unit  of  high  school  study).  A  "curri- 
culum" is  any  systematic  arrangement  of  courses  which  ex- 
tends through  a  number  of  years  and  which  leads  to  a 
diploma  of  graduation. 

1.  Preliminary  considerations.  Two  phases  of  the 
program  of  studies  demand  attention:  What  subjects  are 
to  be  taught?  When  is  each  course  to  be  taught?  In 
answering  the  first  question,  one  must  bear  in  mind  the 
psychology  of  the  adolescent  student  and  the  effect  upon  the 
evolution  of  society.  If  a  subject  does  not  contribute  richly 
to  the  development  of  the  boy  or  girl,  or  will  not  serve  to 
advance  society,  it  should  be  discarded,  no  matter  how  much 
the  children  may  like  it  or  how  many  teachers  have  pre- 
pared to  teach  it.  The  fact  that  the  college  or  university 
may  require  for  entrance  a  certain  subject  of  small  value 
will  serve  to  bolster  up  that  subject  for  a  while;  but  sec- 
ondary school  authorities  should  endeavor  to  have  the  col- 
leges change  their  entrance  requirements  in  respect  to  such 
a  subject  and  should  plan  to  eliminate  it  after  a  reasonable 
time  for  adjustment. 

Not  only  must  we  determine   what  subjects  are  to  be 


78  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

taught,  but  we  must  also  decide  when  they  are  to  be  taught, 
at  what  age,  in  what  year  of  the  curriculum.  Here  it  must 
be  kept  in  mind  that  many  subjects  are  to  be  left  for  the 
senior  high  school  and  junior  college  or  even  for  the  uni- 
versity. Other  subjects  can  be  best  taught  in  the  junior 
high  school.  In  considering  each  individual  subject,  we 
shall  try  to  determine  to  what  school  it  properly  belongs  and, 
if  to  the  lower  secondary  school,  to  what  year. 

In  making  out  a  curriculum  to  suit  a  particular  student, 
it  must  be  decided  how  many  courses  he  should  carry.  This 
will  depend  upon  the  capability  of  the  student  and  upon  his 
needs.  Some  pupils  will  be  able  to  carry  six  courses  suc- 
cessfully, but  may  need  only  five  to  complete  their  plan  of 
work.  Others  may  be  able  to  carry  only  four,  but  may  need 
five.  In  the  latter  case  the  course  must  be  adjusted  to  the 
boy's  capabilities  so  that  he  can  carry  as  many  courses  as  he 
needs.  For  him  much  extra  material  would  have  to  be  elim- 
inated. For  instance,  if  the  reading  of  five  books  a  year 
should  be  the  normal  requirement  in  English,  his  require- 
ment would  have  to  be  reduced  to  four  or  to  three.  Or  if 
David  Copperfield  were  the  standard,  he  might  substitute 
Oliver  Tztnst  or  some  other  shorter  and  easier  novel.  On 
the  whole,  however,  it  may  be  safely  predicted  that  the  nor- 
mal student  will  be  able  to  carry  as  many  normal  courses  as 
he  needs. 

A  decision  based  upon  the  experience  of  several  cities 
that  begin  the  secondary  course  with  the  seventh  grade  indi- 
cates that  through  the  intermediate  high  school  age — twelve 
to  fifteen — pupils  successfully  carry  twenty-five  recitation 
hours  per  week  where  each  lesson  is  two-thirds  the  difficulty 
of  a  senior  high  school  lesson.  In  the  schools  of  Pomona,  a 
pupil  earns  in  the  first  three  years  of  the  secondary  school 
an  average  of  two  and  two-thirds  credits  per  year,  in  the 


COURSES  OF   STUDY  79 

next  two  years  (eleventh  and  twelfth  grades)  he  earns  an 
average  of  four  credits  per  year,  and  in  the  last  two  years 
(thirteenth  and  fourteenth  grades),  an  average  of  five.  If 
the  curriculums  for  the  junior  high  school  were  based  on 
this  plan,  the  normal  adolescent  would  be  expected  to  carry 
successfully  five  courses,  each  for  one  year  and  a  half.  A 
course  carried  for  one  year  and  a  half  would  be  equivalent 
to  the  same  /course  carried  for  one  year  in  senior  high 
school,  where  only  four  different  subjects  are  taken  at  one 
time.  Expressed  in  another  way,  the  senior  high  school 
student  does  as  much  in  one  fourth  of  a  year  as  a  junior 
high  school  pupil  does  in  one  third  of  a  year. 

There  is  also  the  matter  of  election  of  courses.  Shall 
there  be  a  free  election  of  courses  by  the  pupil?  or,  shall 
there  be  certain  required  courses?  If  the  pupil  has  an  elec- 
tion, how  often  may  he  elect?  Must  he  continue  an  elected 
course  until  he  finishes  it,  or  may  he  drop  it  at  the  end  of  a 
semester  and  elect  another  in  its  place. 

We  wish  to  advocate  quite  a  large  freedom  of  election  by 
the  pupil  under  the  guidance  of  parent  and  teacher  or  of 
vocational  adviser.  One  or  two  courses  should  be  required 
of  every  pupil  unless  he  is  thorough  master  of  them.  The 
most  generally  required  courses  are  two  years  each  of  physi- 
cal education  and  English.  Even  if  these  are  in  general 
required,  it  would  be  unwise  to  impose  them  on  a  student 
who  does  not  need  them.  The  other  four  subjects  should  be 
elective;  but  a  pupil  should  be  expected  to  take  a  course 
that  he  needs.  If  a  boy  has  not  mastered  the  fundamentals 
of  arithmetic,  he  should  be  expected  to  take  such  a  course 
in  -junior  high  school.  Hence,  we  need  a  wise  counselor  to 
help  the  student  in  electing  subjects  and  courses. 

We  should  advocate  that  a  pupil  be  required  to  take  a 
course  until  he  has  completed  it  or  has  put  on  it  a  reasonable 


80  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

amount  of  effort.  Here,  again,  the  youth  needs  a  guide  and 
adviser  in  the  principal  or  parent.  Instinctively  a  pupil 
wants  to  drop  a  course  in  which  he  is  failing  or  which  he 
dislikes.  He  also  wants  to  avoid  the  subjects  taught  by  the 
teacher  whom  he  dislikes.  In  these  matters  a  principal  will 
exercise  careful  discretion.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that 
a  pupil  should  be  compelled  to  take  a  subject  with  a  teacher 
whom  he  dislikes.  We  do  not  compel  our  college  or  uni- 
versity boy  to  do  it ;  yet  he  surely  could  be  expected  to  over- 
come his  prejudice  more  easily  than  the  early  adolescent. 

We  must  not  forget  that  the  junior  high  school  is  the 
trying-out  school  where  young  people  are  expected  to  find 
themselves.  We  must,  then,  be  insistent  upon  exposing  the 
student  to  as  many  subjects  as  possible  without  allowing 
him  to  become  fickle  or  flabby,  changeable  and  always  seek- 
ing the  easiest  course. 

2.  Physical  education.  From  the  principle  set  forth  in 
the  first  chapter  it  must  be  evident  that  the  subject  of  physi- 
cal education  should  have  a  large  place  in  the  intermediate 
high  school.  The  purpose  of  the  course  is  to  develop  the 
body,  to  make  it  fit  for  the  uses  for  which  God's  plan  seems 
to  intend  it.  Athletics  and  gymnastics  are  by  no  means  all 
there  is  to  this,  the  subject  of  paramount  importance. 
Schools  should  attack  this  problem  in  a  scientific  spirit,  with 
the  fullest  appreciation  of  its  worth  and  value  to  the  happi- 
ness of  the  individual  pupils,  to  the  improvement  of  the 
race,  and  to  the  health  and  morality  of  society.  Looking  at 
the  subject  in  this  way,  we  find  that  it  deserves  full  discus- 
sion at  this  point. 

There  is  a  theoretical  or  "book"  side  to  physical  educa- 
tion. Physiology  and  hygiene  have  long  had  a  place  in  the 
school  curriculum.  That  place  must  be  enlarged  and 
strengthened.  Physiology  might  well  be  offered  in  the  sec- 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  8 1 

ondary  school  as  a  formal  subject,  independently  or  in  con- 
nection with  biology.  But  somewhere  in  the  junior  high 
school  pupils  should  be  taught  the  functions  of  the  organs  of 
the  human  body,  their  pathology  and  hygienic  care.  In 
such  work  the  boys  and  girls  should  be  in  separate  classes, 
the  boys  under  a  man  teacher,  the  girls  under  a  woman 
teacher.  In  this  way  the  right  kind  of  appeal  may  be  made 
to  the  young  people. 

There  should  be  an  interesting,  instructive,  and  thorough- 
ly trustworthy  textbook.  The  book  selected  should  be  writ- 
ten, not  with  an  idea  of  frightening  boys,  but  with  the  seri- 
ous purpose  of  informing  them  on  matters  pertaining  to 
their  health  and  strength.  Science  does  not  bear  out  the 
scare-head  statements  of  old  physiologists  on  alcoholic 
drinks,  narcotics,  and  stimulants,  or  the  still  more  unreliable 
twaddle  of  quacks  concerning  the  results  of  sexual  errors. 
The  plain  truth  is  sufficiently  alarming.  Boys  frequently 
point  to  the  facts  that  there  are  many  healthy  old  men  who 
smoke  tobacco  and  drink  liquor,  and  scientific  physiologies 
must  square  with  these  facts. 

The  physiologies  should  have  something  to  say  about  diet, 
candies,  gum  chewing,  endurance  running,  cosmetics,  self- 
poisoning,  bad  air,  soiled  underwear,  children's  lunches, 
over-exercise  for  girls,  greediness,  climbing  stairs,  regular 
habits  of  bowels  and  kidneys,  lying  in  bed  in  the  morning, 
irregular  eating,  late  parties,  thin  dresses,  care  at  the 
monthly  periods,  incorrect  posture  in  reading,  decaying 
teeth,  bicycle  riding,  tight  lacing,  tight  shoes,  high  heels, 
coffee  drinking,  standing  long,  straining  the  vocal  cords, 
abrasing  the  skin,  abuse  of  the  hair,  neglect  of  colds,  hard 
blowing  of  the  nose,  lack  of  sleep,  unnecessary  exposure  of 
the  head  to  the  sun  (especially  dangerous  among  light-com- 
plexioned  people),  wet  feet,  over-study,  eyestrain,  con- 


82  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

tagious  diseases,  mosquitoes  and  flies,  impure  food.  It  will 
be  seen  that  many  of  these  matters  refer  especially  to  girls. 
It  seems  to  the  writer  that  undue  emphasis  has  heretofore 
been  placed  upon  dangers  to  the  health  of  beys,  whereas  it 
is  equally  intportant  that  emphasis  be  placed  upon  dangers 
to  the  girls.  Men  are  by  their  very  nature  and  by  the  out- 
door active  life  they  lead  far  more  immune  to  constitutional 
ailments. 

In  this  connection  sanitation  and  community  physiology 
should  form  a  part  of  the  intermediate  course  in  physical 
education.  The  disposal  of  sewage,  the  healthfulness  of  the 
home,  the  care  of  public  toilets,  the  purity  of  the  water 
supply,  the  inspection  of  public  markets  and  groceries,  the 
prevention  of  factory  smoke,  the  sanitation  of  bakeries,  meat 
markets,  confectioneries,  and  hotel  beds,  and  the  quarantine 
of  contagious  diseases  are  matters  that  children  should  study 
about  early  in  the  teens.  Closely  associated  with  the  pre- 
vention of  sickness  is  the  improvement  of  health.  Here  the 
selected  text  should  tell  of  measures  to  improve  the  strength 
and  virility  of  the  race.  Such  measures  include  a  wide 
variety  of  public  activities,. such  as  the  planting  of  parks  in 
cities ;  the  growing  of  shrubbery,  flower  gardens,  and  lawns 
about  the  homes ;  recreation  centers  and  athletic  clubs ;  pub- 
lic baths;  paving'and  widening  of  streets,  public  driveways, 
bridle  paths,  promenades,  water  courses ;  public  excursions 
to  the  open  country  and  to  the  mountains;  mountain  play- 
grounds for  children  and  adults ;  "better  babies"  campaigns ; 
eugenic  marriage  campaigns ;  roof  gardens  on  tenement 
houses;  boys'  and  girls'  camps;  compulsory  military  drill 
in  schools;  county  and  state -athletic  tournaments;  and  all 
other  measures  that  tend  to  make  the  race  healthier  and 
stronger. 


COURSES  OF   STUDY  8;» 

The  above  courses  are  to  be  regarded  as  theoretical  physi- 
cal culture.  Applied  physical  education  aims  to  do  in  school 
all  that  can  be  done  (i)  to  keep  boys  and  girls  healthy,  (2) 
to  restore  to  health  those  who  are  not  well,  (3)  to  correct 
physical  deficiencies,  (4)  to  develop  muscle  and  bodily  con- 
trol, (5)  to  inure  the  young  people  to  physical  labor,  (6) 
to  develop  moral  courage  and  squareness.  No  system  is 
complete  or  even  passably  satisfactory  unless  it  does  all 
these  things  well.  This  is  a  big  program,  one  not  to  be 
carried  out  by  a  teacher  whose  sole  qualification  is  a  knowl- 
edge of  football  and  a  record  as  a  star  on  a  college  team. 
The  teacher  should  excel  in  a  seriousness  of  purpose  and  a 
fullness  of  plans  on  how  to  accomplish  all  the  points  given 
above. 

The  author  does  not  presume  to  know  how  all  these  things 
can  be  done.  He  does  know  that  they  are  being  done  in 
some  cities  and  that  they  should  be  done  in  all,  especially  in 
those  with  junior  high  schools,  if  the  next  generation  and 
the  following  generations  are  to  be  benefited.  There  must 
be  gymnasiums,  shower  baths,  playgrounds,  equipment  and 
paraphernalia,  testing  and  measuring  machines.  Above  all, 
there  must  be  a  master  organizer  to  plan  the  work  so  as  to 
reach  every  pupil — a  person  who  can  also  act  as  the 
director. 

How  often  should  formal  exercise  be  required  ?  For  how 
many  years?  Should  credit  be  given?  How  long  should 
each  exercise  be?  Should  the  exercises  be  in  the  morning, 
afternoon,  or  after  school  ?  May  anybody  be  excused  ?  Can 
other  work  be  substituted  for  physical  culture?  Should 
dancing  be  allowed  in  school?  If  so,  should  it  be  required 
of  children  whose  parents  object  to  it  on  moral  grounds? 
Should  military  training  be  required?  Optional?  Should 
pupils  furnish  their  own  suits,  or  should  the  school  district 
furnish  them?  Should  girls  be  permitted  to  wear  silk 


84  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

stockings  in  the  gymnasium?  Should  Rugby,  American, 
or  soccer  football  be  adopted  ?  Should  girls  play  basketball  ? 
Should  boys  and  girls  play  together  ?  Should  girls  be  direct- 
ed by  men  teachers  ?  Should  physicians  and  dentists  exam- 
ine school  pupils?  Is  a  woman  nurse  preferable,  especially 
for  girls?  These  and  dozens  of  other  questions  must  be 
left  to  the  intelligence  of  the  director.  It  is  not  the  sphere 
of  this  book  to  discuss  them,  much  less  to  , answer  them. 
Some  of  the  questions,  such  as  those  with  regard  to  years 
in  the  curriculum  and  (amount  of  time,  must  necessarily 
answer  themselves  in  the  very  nature  of  the  needs  of  the 
individual  boy  or  girl. 

3.  Manual  and  sense  training.  Even  a  slight  study  of 
the  psychology  of  adolescence  will  reveal  the  importance  of 
sense  awakening  in  that  period.  With  the  natural  acute- 
ness  of  the  senses  of  touch,  sight,  hearing,  smell,  and  taste, 
and  of  muscularity,  at  pubescence  and  on  to  adulthood,  the 
school  has  a  wonderful  opportunity  to  get  results  from  their 
education.  We  have  spoken  in  the  preceding  section  of 
physical  education,  which  is  among  other  things  an  edu- 
cator of  the  muscular  sense.  We  wish  in  this  section  to 
discuss  the  education  of  the  senses  of  touch,  feeling,  sight, 
and  measurement. 

In  no  sense  has  the  traditional  manual  training  developed 
these  senses  to  the  proper  extent.  For  instance,  let  us  take 
the  touch  sense  /alone.  There  is  as  much  development  of 
this  sense  in  playing  a  piano  or  guitar,  in  writing  on  a  type- 
writer, in  painting  or  drawing,  in  kneading  bread  ;dough,  in 
molding  clay,  in  writing  shorthand,  or  in  sewing  and  knit- 
ting as  there  is  in  manual  'training.  But  the  possibilities 
are  by  no  means  exhausted  in  all  these  lines.  Take  the  art 
of  reading  with  the  ringers  from  raised  type.  Why  confine 
this  method  of  reading  to  the  blind?  Why  should  it  not  be 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  85 

taught  in  school  to  all  children  suffering  from  eye-strain  or 
defective  vision?  If  such  pupils  could  be  taught  to  read  in 
that  way,  how  much  it  would  save  their  eyes. 

Reading  with  the  fingers  is  only  one  of  the  many  possi- 
bilities of  sense  training.  Accurate  measurement  with  the 
eyes  is  also  an  undeveloped  possibility  that  could  be  gen- 
erally tried.  This  sense  can  be  developed  to  the  extent  of 
accurately  estimating  a  room's  width,  the  length  of  cloth 
or  rope,  the  distance  across  a  field,  the  height  of  a  tree.  To 
distinguish  this  sense  training  from  others,  we  may  call  it 
mensuration. 

A  very  useful  development  of  the  sight  is  the  recognition 
of  colors  and  their  proper  blending.  A  great  deal  is  done 
in  art  along  this  line;  but  many  boys  who  do  not  want  art 
could  profit  by  such  an  eye  training.  Color  matching  or 
visual  harmony  could  well  find  a  prominent  place  in  a  gen- 
eral course  on  sense  training. 

Sawing  boards  straight,  joining,  planing,  shaping,  lining, 
boring  holes,  properly  driving  nails,  designing  and  making  a 
piece  of  furniture — traditional  manual  training — form  only 
a  part  of  sense  training.  Certainly  the  time  has  come  to 
evaluate  the  subject  of  manual  training  and  to  work  out  a 
richer  content  for  the  course.  Along  with  these  matters 
may  profitably  be  included  such  useful  arts  as  wood  sawing 
and  wood  splitting,  shoe  mending,  basket  making,  mat 
weaving,  puttying,  paper  hanging,  plaster  mending,  calcimin- 
ing,  japalacking,  and  converting  worn-out  socks  into  mit- 
tens. 

If  such  a  course  can  be  devised  and  organized  with  litt'c 
cost,  most  superintendents  and  boards  of  education  will 
gladly  make  it  a  required  subject  in  the  junior  high  school. 
Leaving  the  vocational  phase  of  hand  work  to  the  senior 
high  school,  the  course  (in  sense  training  for  boys  may  be 


86  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

completed  in  one  and  one  half  years  in  the  intermediate 
school.  As  other  matter  is  constantly  added  to  this  course, 
a  longer  time  will  have  to  be  provided.  Certainly  pupils 
can  well  afford  to  spend  three  semesters  on  this  enriched 
subject.  If  confined  to  traditional  manual  training,  there 
should  be  scarcely  more  than  one  semester  required  of  boys. 

The  place  of  sense  training  in  the  junior  high  school  must 
depend  upon  the  age  and  development  of  the  boy  taking  it. 
If  boys  enter  the  intermediate  school  at  twelve  years  of  age, 
sense  training  should  be  placed  as  late  in  the  curriculum  as 
possible,  so  that  there  can  be  a  reasonable  certainty  that 
adolescence  has  well  set  in  before  the  subject  is  begun. 

4.  English.  In  America  we  lay  great  stress  on  the 
teaching  of  the  vernacular.  In  some  English-speaking  lands 
the  people  are  not  so  proud  of  the  mother  tongue  and  not  so 
insistent  upon  its  being  spoken  with  a  certain  inflection  or 
even  upon  using  standardized  words.  In  some  parts  of  Eng- 
land, for  instance,  they  are  prouder  of  their  brogue  than  of 
the  great  universal  language;  they  say  that  the  newspapers 
and  railroad  travel  will  soon  enough  break  down  differences 
in  dialects,  and  consequently  they  put  forth  no  conscious 
effort  to  conform  to  the  standards  of  good  literature  and  cul- 
tivated conversation.  In  a  land  as  large  as  America  we 
realize  the  importance  of  aiding  nature,  and  our  schools 
become  the  dynamic  factor  in  universalizing  the  English 
language.  Other  nations  go  a  step  further  by  the  creation 
of  academies  that  speak  authoritatively  on  what  is  and 
what  is  not  good  Spanish,  French,  or  what-not.  In  the 
United  States  our  schools  undertake  to  teach  standard  Eng- 
lish, but  each  teacher  is  left  to  decide  for  himself  what  is 
standard. 

English,  as  a  subject  to  be  pursued  in  the  secondary 
schools,  covers  a  number  of  branches  that  were  formerly 


COURSES  OF   STUDY  8" 

spoken  of  as  separate  subjects.  We  used  to  have  grammar, 
spelling,  reading,  composition,  rhetoric,  etymology,  oral 
English,  literature.  Still  farther  back  in  the  past  several 
of  these  were  sub-divided  into  two  or  more  subjects.  The 
tendency  of  late  has  been  to  group  all  these  matters  under 
the  one  head  of  English.  Along  with  this  custom  has  gone 
the  making  of  English  a  required  subject  throughout  the 
grade  school  and  the  high  school.  And  now  have  come  in 
very  recent  years  certain  additions  to  the  general  subject  of 
English,  such  as  debate,  public  speaking,  private  speaking, 
dramatics,  and  journalism.  Many  high  schools  that  require 
four  years  of  English  permit  pupils  to  earn  additional  credits 
in  these  extra  subjects.  It  would  be  possible  to  earn  eight 
credits  of  a  necessary  fifteen  for  graduation,  in  the  field  of 
English  and  its  related  subjects.  All  these  subjects  have 
as  their  main  object  the  improvement  of  the  students  in  the 
vernacular. 

This  tendency  has  alarmed  conservative  school  men  to 
such  an  extent  that  a  reactionary  movement  has  set  in  to 
compel  English  to  "keep  its  place"  and  not  monopolize  the 
curriculum.  This  reaction  has  set  in  just  at  the  time  when 
a  strong  progressive  current  in  education  is  sweeping  the 
old  subjects  off  their  feet  and  is  threatening  to  drown  those 
whose  heaviness  prevents  them  from  swimming.  Some  of 
these  may  be  rescued  by  clinging  to  a  more  active,  virile  sub- 
ject, and  thus  may  be  restored  to  life  after  being  considered 
for  some  time  dead.  Latin  and  German  have  a  chance  in  this 
way  to  survive  the  strong  current  of  modern  progressivism. 
And  strangest  of  all,  they  may  be  saved  by  clinging  to  their 
greatest  competitor  for  favor — English.  We  refer,  of 
course,  to  making  Latin  and  German  part  of  the  English 
course,  to  be  studied  briefly  for  their  value  as  parents  of 
modern  English. 


88  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Makers  of  curriculums  for  secondary  schools  are,  there- 
fore, finding  the  four  years  of  high  school  entirely  inade- 
quate for  the  mastering  of  the  vernacular.  The  junior  high 
school  movement,  tending  to  lengthen  the  secondary  course 
to  seven  years  stretching  from  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
grade  to  the  end  of  the  junior  college,  offers  us  a  solution  of 
the  problem.  Pursued  as  one  subject  through  seven  years, 
English  can  be  made  to  cover  conventional  English  plus 
dramatics,  journalism,  oral  English,  public  speaking  and 
debate,  and  a  semester  of  backgrounds  of  English  in  Rome 
and  in  Saxon  England. 

We  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  English  should  be  pur- 
sued as  a  subject  through  the  seven  years  of  the  secondary 
school.  We  believe  that  it  should  be  made  compulsory.  But 
if  we  argue  for  making  it  compulsory,  we  must  allow  cer- 
tain elections  of  courses.  Better  still,  the  wise  teacher  will 
give  to  each  pupil  what  he  needs  most.  Not  all  by  any 
means  need  exactly  the  same  things.  One  boy  will  require 
grammar;  another  will  be  so  correct  in  speaking  and  writ- 
ing that  he  will  not  need  grammar.  Some  girl  will  need 
dramatics,  while  another  will  profit  more  from  debate  and 
argumentation.  Suppose  the  English  courses  embraced 
twenty-six  semester  units  as  follows :  ( I )  Latin  back- 
ground, (2)  Anglo-Saxon  background,  (3)  grammar,  (4) 
spelling  and  etymology,  (5)  oral  English,  (6)  composition, 
(7)  heroic  narration,  (8)  heroic  poetry,  (9)  Merchant  of 
Venice  and  Julius  Caesar,  (10)  description  and  narration, 
(li)  exposition  and  argument,  (12)  history  of  English 
literature  to  the  Romantic  Period,  (13)  Romantic  Period  to 
the  present  day,  (14)  public  speaking,  (15)  debate,  (16) 
journalism,  (17)  Macbeth  and  Hamlet,  (18)  the  essay,  (19) 
history  of  American  literature,  (20)  private  speaking,  (21) 
dramatics,  (22)  the  drama,  (23)  applied  journalism,  (24) 


COURSES  OF   STUDY  89 

the  novel,  (25)  Shakespeare,  (26)  current  literature.  Boy 
A  may  need  i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9,  10,  n,  14,  15,  21.  Boy  B 
may  need  i,  2,  5,  6,  7,  8,  10,  n,  12,  13,  17,  18,  24,  25.  Both 
boys  and  all  other  pupils  would  take  English  through  the 
seven  years. 

It  now  remains  to  determine  which  of  these  courses  shall 
be  offered  in  the  junior  high  school.  If  certain  of  these 
courses  are  less  difficult  or  simpler  than  others,  they  should 
precede  the  more  difficult.  If  some  are  more  adapted  to  the 
pubescent  period,  they  should  be  given  in  the  junior  high 
school.  We  may  pick  i,  2,  3,  4  as  foundational  in  character 
upon  which  others  have  to  be  built.  We  find  that  5  is 
simpler  than  15  or  20;  that  6  is  simpler  than  10,  n,  16,  or 
23.  It  is  evident  that  7  and  8  are  adapted  to  the  period  of 
emotional  awakening  at  the  beginning  of  adolescence.  We 
may  feel  quite  sure  that  i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  and  8  belong  to  the 
intermediate  school  period ;  although  we  may  entertain  some 
doubt  about  Anglo-Saxon  backgrounds  until  the  course 
shall  have  been  organized  and  tried  out.  Units  9  and  10 
are  being  taught  in  junior  high  school  with  success,  and  may 
be  left  on  the  borderland,  to  be  taken  in  junior  or  senior 
high  school  as  circumstances  dictate. 

One  more  question  must  be  answered.  In  case  a  pupil 
needs  i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  and  8 — eight  semesters  of  work — 
how  shall  he  get  them  in  three  years  ?  This  question  is  sus- 
ceptible of  just  two  answers.  The  most  obvious  is  that  he 
should  be  permitted  to  take  two  units  at  one  time  until  he 
shall  have  worked  through  all  eight.  The  second  answer  is, 
that  such  a  pupil  should  spend  three  and  one-half  or  four 
years  in  the  junior  high  school.  He  would  enter  the  senior 
high  school  with  probably  more  than  eight  of  the  sixteen 
credits  required  for  entrance  to  college. 


9O  THE   JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

5.  Foreign  languages.  What  foreign  languages,  if 
any,  shall  be  taught  in  our  secondary  schools  ?  Why  should 
any  foreign  language  be  taught?  If  any  is  taught,  where 
shall  it  be  placed  in  the  curriculum?  How  much  of  each 
language  shall  be  taught?  These  are  questions  that  are 
challenging  the  best  thought  and  the  widest  investigations 
of  educators. 

The  range  of  foreign  languages  thinkable  as  subjects  for 
our  secondary  schools  embraces  Greek,  Latin,  German, 
French,  Spanish,  Italian,  and  Russian.  These  are  languages 
said  to  have  cultural  value,  disciplinary  value,  or  practical 
value  to  Americans.  Greek  has  by  common  consent  been 
dropped  from  public  secondary  schools.  The  demand  for 
it  has  been  so  small  that  it  has  been  found  impracticable  to 
organize  classes  in  it.  Russian  and  Italian,  though  growing 
in  popularity,  may  be  left  out  of  consideration.  Whatever 
decision  is  made  in  the  remaining  cases  will  be  applicable 
to  these  two  modern  languages  if  they  fulfill  the  same  end. 
If  any  foreign  languages  are  to  be  taught  in  our  secondary 
schools,  they  are  Latin,  German,  French,  and  Spanish. 

Why  should  any  foreign  language  be  taught?  There  is 
a  growing  sentiment  that  no  foreign  language  is  of  practical 
value.  This  is  particularly  true  of  German  and  French.  The 
number  of  German-speaking  people  in  the  United  States  is 
diminishing  so  rapidly  that  except  in  sections  the  language 
is  not  widely  heard  spoken.  Furthermore,  nearly  all  Ger- 
man-speaking Americans  can  speak  English  sufficiently  well 
for  all  ordinary  purposes ;  and,  if  the  wide-spread  movement 
of  societies  for  the  education  of  the  foreigner  continues,  the 
non-English-speaking  Germans  will  shortly  be  a  negligible 
number.  Frenchmen  are  even  more  scarce.  A  questionnaire 
elicited  the  fact  that  few  German-taught  or  French-taught 
students  ever  find  any  use  for  those  languages ;  and  nearly 


COURSES  OF   STUDY  QI 

all  returned  the  reply  that  in  the  many  years  since  they  had 
left  college,  they  had  never  even  had  an  opportunity  to  con- 
verse in  German  or  French! 

There  is  also  the  other  angle.  If  it  were  granted  that  Ger- 
man and  French  are  practical  languages  in  America,  can  a 
boy  acquire  in  school  the  ability  to  speak  the  language? 
After  two  or  three  years  of  high  school  German,  how  many 
boys  could  understand  a  German  conversation,  or  could 
carry  on  conversation  in  German?  The  probability  is  that 
not  one  in  ten  can  do  it.  The  same  is  true  of  Spanish. 

The  practical  or  usable  value  of  a  foreign  language  as 
taught  in  our  secondary  schools  is,  therefore,  very  little.  The 
doctrine  of  formal  discipline  has  been  given  such  body 
blows  that  we  refuse  to  defend  the  foreign .  languages  on 
the  ground  of  their  having  disciplinary  value  superior  to 
other  subjects.  The  culture,  the  humanitarianism,  the 
broader  outlook  upon  life  gotten  by  two  or  three  years  of  a 
foreign  language  is  so  doubtful,  is  so  negligible  in  quantity 
or  quality  that  we  could  not  justify  the  taking  up  of  so 
much  of  the  pupil's  time  on  that  ground  alone.  Certainly 
it  could  not  weigh  in  the  balance  against  the  narrowing,  the 
deadening  effect  of  hours  upon  hours  spent  upon  looking  up 
the  meaning  of  words  in  the  lexicon — looking  up  the  mean- 
ing of  the  same  word  a  half-dozen  times  if  it  occurs  that 
often  en  a  single  page. 

The  truth  is  that  the  foreign  languages  have  been  kept  in 
the  curriculum  because  the  colleges  and  universities  have 
required  a  foreign  language  for  entrance  and  because  the 
children  take  a  fancy  to  the  idea  of  getting  a  smattering  of 
a  language  not  known  by  everybody.  These  are  unworthy 
reasons  for  having  any  subject  in  the  secondary  schools.  A 
more  justifiable  reason  for  electing  a  foreign  language  is 
that  it  is  usually  taught  by  an  excellent  teacher — a  teacher 


92  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

who  could  teach  and  inspire  boys  and  girls  through  the 
medium  of  any  subject  whatsoever. 

For  the  junior  high  school  there  is  a  strong  justification 
for  some  Latin  and  possibly  for  some  Old  English  on  the 
ground  that  they  have  an  excellent  reflex  action  upon  Eng- 
lish. Through  them  the  pupil  learns  to  understand  the 
grammar  of  his  own  language,  he  gets  a  larger  insight  into 
the  meaning  of  English  words,  and  he  strengthens  and  ex- 
tends his  English  vocabulary.  One  semester  of  each  would 
probably  be  sufficient,  especially  if  they  were  taught  with 
this  end  in  view. 

We  reach  the  conclusion  that  in  some  parts  of  the  United 
States  a  certain  foreign  language  if  mastered  may  have 
some  practical  value;  but  that  on  the  whole,  foreign  lan- 
guages should  be  dropped  from  the  curriculum  of  secondary 
schools ;  that  the  process  of  dropping  languages  must  be 
done  gradually  so  as  to  permit  colleges  and  teachers  to  ad- 
just themselves  to  the  change;  and  that  a  semester  of  Latin, 
of  German,  of  French,  or  of  Old  English  may  be  retained 
permanently  for  the  value  to  English.  Until  foreign  lan- 
guages shall  disappear  altogether  from  the  secondary  course, 
they  should  be  made  optional  in  the  junior  high  school  and 
should  be  taken  by  such  pupils  only  as  are  compelled  to  have 
them  to  meet  college  requirements. 

6.  Mathematics.  In  an  earlier  chapter  it  was  seen  that 
boys  have  strongly  outcropping  at  adolescence  the  measur- 
ing sense  which  is  connected  with  the  observation  faculty  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  reasoning  faculty  on  the  other.  This 
is  generally  interpreted  as  the  age  for  mathematics,  and  the 
boy  is  usually  able  to  grasp  the  principles  of  algebra  and 
geometry  and  apply  them  to  objective  problems.  A  careful 
trial  of  teaching  pure  mathematics  to  early  adolescents  re- 
veals the  pupil's  lack  of  ability  to  solve  the  problems  that 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  93 

require  an  application  of  the  principles  of  algebra  and 
geometry.  The  chief  difficulty  here  is  that  the  pupil  is  un- 
able to  unravel  the  mysterious  wording  of  the  problems  so 
as  to  get  his  first  statement. 

Girls  often  excel  in  algebra  and  geometry,  sometimes  far 
outstripping  the  boys  of  the  same  class.  An  investigation 
of  a  case  of  this  kind  revealed  the  fact,  however,  that  the 
girls  were  somewhat  older  than  the  boys  and  were  more  than 
a  year  advanced  in  physical  maturity.  But  girls  are  more 
variable  in  their  mathematical  proclivities.  Far  more  girls 
are  found  wanting  in  ability  to  grasp  algebra  and  geometry 
than  boys.  It  is  also  true  that  girls  do  not  like  mathematics 
so  well  as  boys  do. 

In  Pomona  we  have  tried  a  progressive  system  of  ex- 
tending algebra  lower  and  lower  in  the  grades.  It  was  tried 
first  in  the  A8  grade,  then  in  the  B8,  then  in  the  A/,  finally 
in  the  B/.  The  most  interesting  result  was  obtained  in  the 
B8  grade.  A  B8  class  was  started  in  algebra  at  the  same 
time  as  a  BQ.  There  was  no  appreciable  difference  in  the 
character  and  preparation  of  the  pupils.  If  anything  the 
ninth  grade  was  more  of  a  "picked"  group  than  the  eighth 
grade — picked  in  the  sense  that  the  poorer  children  had  been 
eliminated.  At  the  end  of  one  semester  the  two  classes 
stood  together ;  during  the  second  semester,  the  most  intri- 
cate problems  being  eliminated  for  the  eighth  graders,  the 
two  classes  kept  together,  reaching  quadratics  at  the  same 
time.  The  number  of  intricate  problems  eliminated,  how- 
ever, did  not  exceed  twenty.  Both  classes  finished  the  course 
without  one  student  failing  to  reach  a  grade  of  75  per  cent. 

Our  course  is  so  arranged  that  pupils  may  begin  algebra 
in  the  67  grade  if  they  have  indicated  strength  in  sixth 
grade  arithmetic;  otherwise  they  take  arithmetic  in  the  67 
and  begin  algebra  in  the  A7  grade.  Pupils  who  do  not  wish 


94  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

to  take  algebra  in  the  67,  may  take  household  accounts 
through  the  seventh  grade,  and  bookkeeping  through 
the  eighth  and  ninth  grades.  If  a  pupil  taking  book- 
keeping has  a  change  of  heart  at  the  end  of  the  A7  or 
B8  semester,  he  may  start  algebra  at  the  beginning  of  the  B8 
or  at  the  beginning  of  the  A8  semester.  Wherever  he  begins 
it  early,  he  spends  three  semesters  on  the  subject,  algebra 
being  one  of  the  five  subjects  that  he  carries.  There  was 
some  doubt  in  our  minds  whether  the  average  child  could 
commence  algebra  at  the  beginning  of  the  junior  high  school 
and  complete  the  subject  in  one  and  one-half  years.  In  one 
of  our  schools  all  the  children  of  the  beginning  seventh 
grade  qualified  on  the  basis  of  proficiency  in  arithmetic  and 
have  successfully  carried  algebra.  In  the  other  school  forty 
out  of  sixty  qualified  for  algebra  and  have  successfully  car- 
ried it.  The  other  twenty  made  such  slow  progress  in  arith- 
metic that  they  were  not  considered  ready  for  algebra  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Kj  grade. 

The  conclusion  is  inevitable  that,  in  a  course  allowing 
three  semesters  for  algebra,  the  beginning  of  the  junior  high 
school  is  the  time  to  commence  the  subject.  The  best  two- 
thirds  in  arithmetic  of  the  sixth  grade  will  carry  algebra 
without  failure;  the  weak  one-third  will  do  better  to  take 
up  algebra  at  the  same  time.  Out  of  a  class  of  thirty  poorly- 
prepared  seventh  graders,  probably  twenty  will  do  the 
algebra  satisfactorily.  The  other  ten  should  probably  drop 
algebra  for  a  semester,  coming  back  to  it  at  the  beginning 
of  the  eighth  grade.  All  in  all,  the  proportion  of  failures 
among  seventh  graders  taking  algebra  is  no  greater  than 
among  ninth  grade  high  school  pupils. 

We  naturally  expect  to  have  geometry  taken  up  by  those 
A8  pupils  who  have  finished  algebra.  In  Pomona  we  have 
no  data  as  yet  on  the  success  of  this  plan.  In  Los  Angeles,. 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  95 

however,  they  have  been  successful  in  teaching  concrete 
geometry  (under  the  name  of  mensuration)  to  eighth  grade 
pupils.  Simple  theorems  are  successfully  demonstrated  by 
the  classes.  In  case  our  plan  proves  successful,  the  three 
years  of  the  junior  high  school  course  will  be  divided  into 
two  equal  periods — the  first  period  for  algebra,  the  second 
for  plane  geometry. 


CHAPTER  SIX 

COURSES  OF  STUDY  (Continued) 

1.  History  and  politics.  There  are  a  number  of  con- 
siderations making  the  teaching  of  history  and  politics 
imperative  in  the  junior  high  school.  Among  them  are  the 
incompleteness  of  the  elementary  school  course,  the  grow- 
ing reasoning  powers  of  adolescents,  the  desire  to  be  con- 
sidered grown  up,  the  budding  desire  to  assume  the  burdens 
of  society,  the  desire  for  a  voice  in  government,  the  love  of 
the  heroic.  Out  of  the  many  possible  courses  in  this  field, 
what  shall  be  taught  in  the  junior  secondary  period? 

The  following  are  the  units  collated  from  the  published 
courses  of  study  of  half  a  hundred  cities  and  towns:  (i) 
European  backgrounds,  (2)  colonial  period  of  American 
history,  (3)  national  period,  (4)  community  civics,  (5) 
state  history,  (6)  early  ancient  history,  (7)  late  ancient  his- 
tory, (8)  medieval  history,  (9)  early  modern  history,  (10) 
i8th,  ipth,  and  2Oth  century  history,  (n)  English  history 
to  1700,  (12)  English  history  since  1700,  (13)  advanced 
American  history  to  1828,  (14)  advanced  American  his- 
tory since  1828,  (15)  advanced  civics,  (16)  elementary 
economics,  (17)  sociology,  (18)  problems  in  American 
democracy,  (19)  problems  in  American  democracy,  con- 
tinued, (20)  advanced  economics,  (21)  economic  and  social 
problems,  (22)  constitutional  history  of  England,  (23) 
Europe  igth  Century,  (24)  sectional  history.  If  we  follow 
the  recommendations  of  the  Committee  of  Eight,  we  will 
assign  European  backgrounds  to  the  sixth  grade,  probably 
carrying  the  work  to  the  American  Revolution  in  that  grade. 
It  must  be  assumed  that  in  the  fifth  grade  the  children  have 
had  a  narrative  and  biographical  account  of  American  his- 

96 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  (CONTINUED)  97 

tory  through  the  entire  range  of  white  men's  existence  on 
this  continent.    If  I  and  2  have  been  done  in  the  sixth  grade, 

3  might  occupy  the  first  semester  of  the  junior  high  school, 
followed  by  4  in  the  second  semester;  5  might  occupy  the 
third  semester,  while  6,  7,  and  8 — covering  the  conventional 
first  year  high  school  history — would  occupy  the   fourth, 
fifth,  and  sixth  semesters  of  the  intermediate  high  school, 
leaving  Modern  European  History  to  the  senior  high  school. 
In  substance  the  above  is  a  commonly  used  plan,  and  would 
meet  the  requirements  of  a  junior  high  school  that  embraced 
the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  grades  of  one  year  each. 
The  well-worked  out  Berkeley  plan  gives  2  and  3  in  the  sev- 
enth grade,  4  and  5  in  the  eighth  grade,  and  6,  7,  and  8  in 
the  ninth  grade. 

The  Pomona  plan  places  I  and  2  in  the  sixth  grade.  The 
other  units  taken  in  the  six  corresponding  semesters  of 
junior  high  school  are  as  follows:  unit  3  in  first  semester; 

4  and  part  of  6  in  second  semester ;  the  remainder  of  6  and 
all  of  7  in  third ;  8  in  fourth ;  9  in  fifth  ;  10  in  sixth.     In  this 
way  the  conventional  two  high  school  years  of  world  his- 
tory are  given  in  the  intermediate  school.    The  senior  high 
school- junior  college  is  then  left  free  to  pursue  advanced 
American  history  and  economic,  social,  and  political  prob- 
lems. 

How  much  of  this  work  should  be  required  of  all  pupils? 
If  there  were  sufficient  time,  everyone  should  be  required 
to  take  these  six  semesters  of  history.  As  it  is,  a  minimum 
amount  should  be  fixed — probably  two  units.  If  two  units 
only  are  required,  undoubtedly  they  should  be  3  and  4,  the 
last  half  of  American  history  and  all  of  community  civics. 
If  general  history  is  not  taken,  the  student  will  be  greatly 
handicapped  thereafter.  However,  the  youth  will  have  had 
European  backgrounds  which  in  a  general  way  covers  world 


98  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

history.  He  will  also  have  an  opportunity  later  to  take  Eng- 
lish history,  English  constitutional  history,  and  Europe  in 
the  i Qth  and  2Oth  centuries.  These  cover  the  ground  pretty 
thoroughly.  If,  however,  the  school  is  not  organized  on  the 
seven-year  secondary  plan,  more  pressure  should  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  pupil  to  take  world  history  in  the  junior 
high  school. 

Will  the  pupil  have  opportunity  to  get  the  things  he 
needs  as  summarized  in  the  first  paragraph  of  this  topic  if 
he  does  not  take  general  history  in  the  intermediate  school  ? 
The  love  of  the  heroic  may  be  satisfied  in  heroic  fiction  and 
verse ;  the  desire  for  a  voice  in  government,  in  student  self- 
government  and  other  student  organizations.  The  other 
tendencies  may  be  satisfied  in  debate,  public  speaking,  and 
church  activities.  The  ripening  reason  may  find  develop- 
ment in  mathematics,  in  the  sciences,  and  in  English.  The 
results  obtainable  are  not  so  good  as  they  would  be  in  world 
history,  nor  would  the  outlook  upon  life  be  so  broadened. 
Boys  especially  should  be  encouraged  to  take  history,  not 
so  much  because  they  are  future  voters  but  because  all 
through  history  and  civics  can  the  boy  express  his  masculine 
traits  of  character.  In  community  civics  one  gets  an  under- 
standing of  social  benefits  and  obligations,  and  puts  into 
practice  the  principles  learned. 

2.  The  sciences.  The  investigating  inquisitiveness  of 
the  adolescent  coupled  with  the  awakening  senses  of  sight, 
hearing,  etc.,  drives  the  boy  inevitably  toward  science.  If 
he  does  not  get  it  in  school,  he  finds  it  outside  of  school. 
Nothing  can  keep  the  normal  adolescent  boy  from  studying 
nature  and  nature's  laws.  The  school  has  wisely  taken  over 
the  sciences  and  is  endeavoring  to  assist  the  young  people  to 
get  a  knowledge  of  nature  by  real  scientific  methods.  Not 
the  least  benefit  to  the  student  is  the  scientific  habit  acquired. 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  (CONTINUED)  99 

The  foundation  of  a  vocation  may  also  be  laid  by  studying 
the  underlying  scientific  principles.  Thus  science  is  the 
basis  of  cooking,  mechanical  arts,  agriculture,  mining,  and 
many  other  occupations. 

The  sciences  commonly  taught  in  the  secondary  schools 
are  general  science,  agriculture,  biology,  chemistry,  zoology, 
botany,  physical  geography,  and  physics.  The  difficult 
mathematics  of  chemistry  and  physics  have  forced  these 
subjects  into  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  grades.  Zoology  and 
botany  have  likewise  tended  toward  the  maturer  years  of 
youth.  By  common  consent  physical  geography,  biology, 
and  elementary  agriculture  have  settled  down  in  the  ninth 
and  tenth  grades ;  while  general  science  as  a  foundation 
science  has  until  recently  occupied  the  ninth  grade  and  is 
now  tending  downward  into  the  eighth  and  seventh  grades. 

We  have  shown  in  a  previous  chapter  the  natural  tendency 
of  geography,  that  is,  to  merge  gradually  into  history  and 
disappear  as  a  separate  subject.  After  history  has  effec- 
tually swallowed  the  descriptive  and  geologic  parts  of 
geography,  general  science  finishes  the  dissolution  by  ab- 
sorbing the  physical  element  of  geography.  Only  in  rare 
cases  now  do  we  find  schools  offering  courses  in  physical 
geography :  general  science  has  taken  its  place  in  the  curri- 
culum. 

General  science  as  a  teachable  subject  has  not  been  stand- 
ardized; it  is  still  in  a  pliable,  yes,  plastic  condition.  And 
while  it  is  still  in  this  state,  it  will  be  easy  to  adapt  it  to  what- 
ever grade  to  which  it  may  be  assigned.  There  are  textbooks 
on  the  market  purporting  to  be  intended  for  fifth  grade  chil- 
dren. There  would  be  a  danger  of  such  a  course  falling  to  the 
level  (developmentally)  of  nature  study.  It  might  teach  and 
inspire  a  love  for  nature  but  could  scarcely  develop  the  scien- 
tific method  or  embody  a  group  of  facts  suitable  for  a  foun- 


IOO  THE   JUNIOR    HIGH    SCHOOL 

dation  upon  which  to  build  a  science.  General  science  must 
go  far  beyond  nature  study,  be  a  science  in  fact. 

If  general  science  should  occupy  the  last  three  semesters 
of  the  junior  high  school  course,  it  would  not  need  to  differ 
from  the  subject  as  now  taught  in  the  first  year  of  high 
school.  It  would,  indeed,  correspond  precisely  to  that  age, 
and  such  text-books  as  have  been  written  for  ninth  grade 
could  be  used  in  the  course.  The  plans  outlined,  the  labora- 
tory manuals,  and  the  laboratory  equipment  would  be  the 
same. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  general  science  is  to  occupy  the  first 
three  semesters  of  the  junior  high  school,  a  considerable 
change  in  the  course,  text-book  equipment,  and  manual  would 
have  to  be  made.  The  pupils  could  not  understand  the  lan- 
guage of  the  text ;  the  materials  in  the  laboratory  would  have 
to  be  less  complex;  and  a  simpler  approach  to  the  subject 
would  have  to  be  made.  In  the  Pomona  schools  we  are 
trying  out  this  plan  after  having  successfully  taught  it  in  the 
last  three  semesters  of  the  junior  high  school.  We  are  using 
a  high  school  text-book,  however.  The  success  of  the  work 
is  not  assured  as  yet. 

Elementary  agriculture  as  a  text-book  science  and  as  a 
science  requiring  no  experimental  farm  is  teachable  in  the 
intermediate  school.  It  has  been  taught  with  success  in  the 
ninth  grade  of  high  schools,  and,  as  was  said  in  discussing 
general  science,  it  would  not  need  much  change  to  adapt  it 
to  the  last  three  semesters  of  the  junior  high  school.  If, 
however,  general  science  should  have  to  be  taught  in  the 
last  three  semesters  of  the  intermediate  school,  an  unsolved 
problem  would  arise  as  to  whether  agriculture  could  be 
taught  successfully,  profitably  in  the  first  three  semesters. 
It  seems  upon  the  face  of  the  question  that  general  science 
should  precede  agriculture,  but  the  reverse  may  become 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  (CONTINUED)  IOI 

necessary.  Elementary  agriculture  in  the  seventh  grade 
would  be  in  danger  of  falling  to  the  level  of  school  garden- 
ing— a  subject  belonging  to  the  elementary  school.  It  can- 
not be  too  much  insisted  upon  that  elementary  agriculture 
shall  be  a  science  in  the  true  sense.  It  is  decidedly  a  basic 
science  upon  which  vocational  agriculture  may  be  built ;  and 
the  teachers  should  not  forget  that  it  is  a  science  as  well  as 
an  art. 

In  case  the  junior  high  school  course  includes  the  tenth 
grade,  biology  would  probably  be  offered  in  the  last  three 
semJesters.  Biology  that  includes  the  elements  of  zoology, 
botany  and  physiology  would  probably  fill  a  demand  in  the 
lower  secondary  school.  Many  educators  urge  that  a  one- 
semester  course  in  physiology  should  be  required  of  all.  In 
the  preceding  chapter  we  insisted  strongly  on  the  teaching 
of  physiology  and  hygiene  in  connection  with  physical  edu- 
cation. If  pupils  were  required  to  elect  between  general 
science  and  biology,  one  semester  of  the  two  courses  might 
be  made  common  to  both,  and  physiology  be  made  the  sub- 
stance of  the  semester's  work.  Where  physiology  and 
hygiene  can  be  made  a  part  of  the  course  in  physical  educa- 
tion, biology  and  general  science  would  then  touch  but 
lightly  on  those  matters. 

3.  Culture  subjects.  Under  this  heading  we  include 
those  subjects  that  are  studied  for  culture  only — those  that 
open  new  fields  for  intellectual  and  emotional  enjoyment 
without  any  thought  of  their  utilitarian  value.  It  is  an 
open  question  as  to  whether  the  public  schools  are  justified 
in  teaching  on  public  funds  subjects  that  contribute  merely 
to  the  development  of  capacity  for  enjoyment.  But  the  cul- 
ture subjects  have  so  long  been  a  part  of  our  curricula  that 
they  cannot  be  dropped  without  disorganizing  the  school 
system.  Under  this  head  would  come  the  foreign  languages, 


LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


IO2  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH   SCHOOL 

which  have  such  a  fascination  for  the  young  people  of  our 
country.  The  ability  to  utter  a  few  phrases  in  French  thrills 
the  emotions  of  youths.  It  is  very  noticeable,  however,  that 
the  hard  grind  necessary  to  the 'mastery  of  a  foreign  lan- 
guage does  not  greatly  appeal  to  our  young  people.  There 
are  other  culture  subjects  that  produce  the  same  tingle  and 
yet  do  not  involve  such  deadening  drudgery. 

(a)  Music.  Most  of  our  young  people  now  arrive  at 
the  beginning  of  adolescence  with  an  ability  to  read  music  of 
considerable  difficulty.  As  music  and  other  culture  subjects 
have  a  tendency  to  raise  the  mind  above  the  sordid  and 
carnal  things  of  life,  we  may  safely  assume  that  they  will 
be  taught  in  the  adolescent  period  as  a  deterrent  if  for  no 
other  reason.  Music  is  par  excellence  a  culture  subject. 
Classes  in  vocal  music  can  be  taught  with  inconsiderable 
expense,  the  child  carrying  his  instrument  around  with  him. 
The  vocal  music  of  the  adolescent  school  should  be  free  from 
grinding  labor.  The  joy  and  inspiration  in  singing  will  be 
sufficient  to  offset  such  mental  application  as  may  be  neces- 
sary. Choral  singing  lends  itself  to  this  period  best,  blend- 
ing and  harmony  being  necessary  to  the  making  of  adol- 
escent music.  Occasionally  one  finds  a  soloist  of  the  "back- 
fisch" age,  but  it  is  very  exceptional.  Duets  and  quartets 
are  difficult  to  produce  from  among  these  young  people. 
Boys  and  girls  should  hear  good  music  at  this  age ;  but  should 
not  be  surfeited  with  classical  compositions.  One  easy  grand 
opera  should  be  heard  while  the  children  are  in  junior  high 
school.  It  will  be  epoch-making  in  its  effect. 

This  is  the  heyday  of  instrumental  music.  If  possible,  the 
school  should  own  instruments  of  all  kinds  to  be  used  by 
pupils  with  or  without  means.  The  youth  cannot  well  afford 
to  purchase  an  expensive  instrument,  which  in  all  probability 
will  be  laid  aside  in  a  couple  of  years.  While  the  frenzy  lasts, 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  (CONTINUED)  IO3 

however,  the  opportunity  should  be  afforded  to  learn  to  play. 
It  will  be  hard  to  work  instrumental  music  into  a  schedule 
of  studies,  because  much  of  the  teaching  must  be  done  by 
appointment  with  the  instructor.  Nevertheless,  many  schools 
teach  it  successfully,  and  thus  help  to  build  up  a  band  and 
an  orchestra  of  real  merit. 

The  fact  that  "music  hath  charm  to  soothe  the  savage 
breast"  has  wide  application  in  the  adolescent  period.  Many 
a  boy  has  found  solace  in  music  when  his  growing  body 
seemed  aflame  for  more  sensual  sensations.  Many  another 
boy  too  anaemic  for  athletic  honors  has  found  himself  lion- 
ized and  happy  as  a  musician  in  the  school  band.  Besides, 
there  is  much  healthy  physical  development  in  singing  or 
playing  for  it  strengthens  the  lungs,  enlarges  the  chest, 
straightens  the  back,  and  induces  a  posture  of  body  condu- 
cive to  strength  and  symmetry. 

(b)  Art.  Much  that  has  been  said  for  music  may  be 
said  with  equal  emphasis  for  art.  Art  as  a  culture  study  is 
justified  in  that  it  opens  up  a  large  field  for  high  emotional 
enjoyment.  Next  to  harmony  of  tones,  beauty  of  color 
and  form  attracts  the  adolescent.  In  art  girls  find  joy 
earlier  than  boys.  In  fact,  art  thrust  upon  boys  of  the 
adolescent  period,  may  produce  a  revulsion,  rather  than  an 
ecstacy,  of  feeling.  A  taste  for  art  can  frequently  be  culti- 
vated. Most  girls  take  readily  to  art:  it  is  an  outcropping 
of  budding  womanhood,  a  symptom  of  adolescence. 

In  the  order  of  natural  development,  painting  comes  first, 
painting  with  striking  colors  and  bold  contrasts.  Soon  fol- 
low blending  of  shades  and  harmony  of  color.  Drawing  is 
more  or  less  a  drudgery  at  first,  but  the  necessity  for 
accuracy  of  perspective,  for  correct  form,  for  light  and  shade 
soon  dawns  upon  the  pubescent  girl.  Paper  and  canvas  give 
way  to  wood,  leather  work,  weaving,  metal  work,  clay- 


IO4  TH£  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

moulding,  and  jewelry.  A  large  proportion  of  girls  would 
take  to  this  work  if  it  were  open  for  election,  and  no  culture 
is  healthier  for  the  girl,  compelling,  as  it  does,  out-door 
sketching,  work-shop  habits,  physical  exercise,  and  sense- 
education.  It  may  be  made  of  practical  value,  the  girl 
carrying  the  work  into  womanhood  and  the  home.  Trimming 
of  hats,  designing  of  one's  own  dresses,  draping  of  curtains, 
and  decorating  of  the  home — all  are  rendered  easier  and 
more  successful  by  a  course  in  art. 

At  least  three  semesters  of  art  and  freehand  drawing 
should  be  open  to  girls  and  boys  in  the  junior  high  school. 
(c)  Literature.  One  phase  of  this  subject  has  been 
discussed  in  connection  with  English.  It  is  mentioned  here 
again  as  a  culture  subject,  aside  from  its  bearing  on  the 
student's  learning  to  speak  and  write  well  in  the  vernacular. 
Whenever  literature  has  failed,  in  the  past,  to  give  the  boys 
and  girls  a  love  for  reading  good  books,  it  has  been  very 
largely  because  they  have  been  taught  forms  of  literature 
far  beyond  their  developmental  stage.  We  have  been  ex- 
pecting children  of  fourteen  and  fifteen  to  like  books  whose 
cultural  appeal  is  to  adults.  It  is  folly  to  try  to  get  boys 
and  girls  interested  in  philosophical  poetry  or  problem  nov- 
els. Their  intellectual  and  moral  experience  is  too  limited 
to  comprehend  the  author's  meaning.  It  is  idle  to  attempt 
to  interest  early  adolescents  in  Carlyle's  Essay  on  Burns, 
Emerson's  and  Macaulay's  Essays,  Macbeth,  Hamlet,  much 
of  Milton's,  Wordsworth's,  Browning's,  or  Tennyson's 
poetry,  to  say  nothing  of  Pope,  Addison,  Ruskin,  Shelley, 
Keats,  and  Thackeray. 

And  why  try  to  interest  pupils  in,  to  them,  such  dry  read- 
ing when  we  have  dozens  of  writers  and  hundreds  of  books 
graduated  to  the  adolescent  mind.  Here,  too,  it  must  be 
remembered,  boys  and  girls  begin  to  diverge  in  their  likes 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  (CONTINUED)  IO5 

and  interests.  Girls  are  fond  of  Miss  Alcott's  books,  George 
Eliot,  Scott,  Whittier,  Longfellow,  Hawthorne,  J.  G.  Hol- 
land, Frances  Hodgson  Burnett,  Paul  Leicester  Ford, 
Myrtle  Reed,  Owen  Meredith.  Boys  like  Stevenson,  Scott, 
Cooper,  Longfellow,  Conan  Doyle,  Poe  (prose),  Dickens, 
Washington  Irving,  Aldrich.  These  authors  should  not  be 
"studied,"  but  merely  read.  Poetry  will  have  to  be  read  in 
class  or  with  assigned  lessons.  As  a  matter  of  fact  poetry 
should  always  be  read  aloud  and  in  sufficient  quantity  to  tell 
a  story.  Heroic  poetry  should  predominate. 

Dr.  Stanley  Hall  shows  in  an  interesting  diagram  that 
girls  reach  their  quantitative  maximum  of  reading  at  thir- 
teen and  boys  a  little  later.  This  fact  should  lead  us  to 
conclude  that  this  early  adolescent  period  is  our  opportunity 
for  introducing  young  people  to  good  authors.  How  much 
shall  we  expect  the  boy  or  girl  to  read  ?  Hall's  investigation 
shows  that  each  twelve-year-old  will  read  twelve  books  in  a 
year,  and  the  thirteen-year-old,  fifteen  books.  Let  us  see 
what  books  a  girl  could  read  in  the  two  years :  Jo's  Boys, 
Little  Men,  Little  Women,  Silas  Marner,  Romola,  Ivanhoe, 
Kenilworth,  Snowbound,  Hvangeline,  Miles  Standish,  Great 
Stone  Face,  Blithedale  Romance,  Scarlet  Letter,  Bitter 
Sweet,  Katrina,  Little  Lord  Fountleroy,  Hon.  Peter  Stir- 
ling, Lavcndar  and  Old  Lace,  A  Spinner  in  the  Sun,  Lucile, 
and  seven  others.  Boys  could  read  Treasure  Island,  Ivan- 
hoe,  Wavcrly,  Rob  Roy,  Last  of  the  Mohicans,  The  Path- 
finder, The  Prairie,  Miles  Standish,  Firm  of  Girdlestone, 
Hound  of  the  Baskervilles,  The  Great  Shadow,  The  Gold 
Bug,  Oliver  Twist,  Martin  Chuzzlewit,  Tour  of  the  Prairies, 
Astoria,  Adventures  of  Captain  Bonneville,  Prudence  Pal- 
frey, and  nine  others.  One  could  be  quite  certain  that  the 
boy  or  girl  would  find  at  least  one  author  whom  he  would 
want  to  complete. 


io6  THE;  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

This  is  the  period  of  life  when  there  should  be  some 
guidance  in  reading-  current  literature.  There  are  many 
magazines  whose  stories  are  very  wholesome  for  adoles- 
cents ;  there  are  others  whose  stories  would  be  exceedingly 
harmful  to  those  whose  characters  are  not  yet  formed.  The 
law  ought  to  step  in  and  prohibit  certain  story  magazines 
being  sold  to  children  under  eighteen,  for  the  danger  is  cer- 
tainly as  great  as  in  the  case  of  cigarettes  or  liquor.  Love 
stories  that  are  insinuatingly  suggestive,  adventure  stories 
that  arouse  the  desire  to  steal  or  commit  semi-criminal 
pranks  have  the  same  demoralizing  effect  as  liquor  and 
tobacco.  The  school  has  done  a  great  good  in  arousing  pub- 
lic opinion  against  the  latter:  it  should  commence  a  legis- 
lative campaign  against  the  former. 

(d)  Dramatics.  The  study  of  dramatics  for  its  cul- 
ture value  is  beginning  to  book  large  in  the  high  school. 
Such  a  course  is  carried  on  along  parallel  lines.  There  is 
the  theoretical  side  of  the  study,  dealing  with  the  history  of 
the  stage,  the  mechanics  of  drama  writing,  the  elements  of 
the  drama,  method  of  producing  a  play.  On  the  theoretical 
side  comes  also  the  study  of  certain  great  type  dramas — 
tragedy,  melodrama,  romance,  comedy,  and  farce.  Such  a 
course  in  theory  is  called  in  the  curriculum  the  drama.  The 
other  side  might  be  regarded  as  the  application  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  drama  to  practice.  It  would  involve  the  actual 
work  of  staging  a  play  and  would  include  making  the 
scenery,  stage  construction  and  management,  making-up  the 
actors,  and  acting  the  play  on  the  stage.  Much  of  the  class- 
room work  would  be  the  study  of  a  play  to  get  at  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words,  then  the  interpretation  of  that  meaning  in 
speech  and  action.  This  practical  side  of  the  subject  might 
be  called  dramatics.  Both  the  drama  and  dramatics  con- 
tribute to  the  broadening  of  the  student's  field  of  enjoyment. 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  (CONTINUED)  IO/ 

The  beginning  of  this  subject  may  well  be  undertaken  in 
the  junior  high  school,  not  perhaps  as  an  organized  course, 
but  as  a  school  activity.  The  pupils  of  this  age  may  well  be 
permitted  to  attend  one  good  play  a  year.  In  all  probability 
their  parents  will  take  them  to  half  a  dozen  poor  plays  and 
to  dozens  of  picture-shows.  There  will  well  up  in  the  ado- 
lescent a  desire  to  act  on  the  stage,  and  mass  action  will  be 
wholesome  and  good  for  such  young  folks.  A  warning 
should  be  uttered  against  choosing  a  "star"  or  "leading 
part''  from  among  intermediate  pupils :  their  heads  are  so 
easily  ''turned"  that  there  is  danger  of  ruining  the  boy  or 
girl  ior  any  more  prosaic  work. 

(e)  History  and  geography.     From  one  point  of  view 
history  and  geography  may  be  regarded  as  cultural  sub- 
jects.    One  who  learns  in  school  to  love  the  movement  of 
events,  descriptions  of  many  lands,  and  all  their  attendant 
concomitants,  will  have  a  source  of  great  enjoyment  when 
he  grows  to  adulthood.    These  joys  will  not  consist  entirely 
in  reading  history  and  geography,  but  in  travel,  in  collecting 
local  historical  mjaterial,  in  constructing  and  reading  maps, 
in  visiting  industrial  plants,  and  in  learning  the  methods  of 
producing   from   the   soil  in   places   where  he   happens  to 
sojourn. 

(f)  Sciences.     All  busy  men  and  women  have  their 
avocations  which  they  love  and  enjoy.    Many  an  office-man 
finds  rest  and  pleasure  in  pursuing  at  home  some  scientific 
investigation.     It  may  be  chemical  experiments,  collecting 
flowers,  stuffing  birds,  inventing  mechanical  devices,  classi- 
fying geologic  specimens,  or  testing  building  materials.     It 
is  to  provide  men  and  women  with  such  enjoyable  avoca- 
tions that  many  culture  subjects  are  taught  in  school.     In 
this  sense  the  sciences  may  be  regarded  as  culture  subjects. 


IO8  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOI, 

(g)  Manual  training.  What  has  been  said  of  the 
sciences  may  be  said  of  what  is  taught  under  the  broad  term 
of  manual  training.  Dentists  worn  out  with  the  tedious 
day's  work  find  recreation  at  evening  in  wood-work;  physi- 
cians, in  metal  working ;  lawyers,  in  electricity ;  teachers,  in 
basketry,  plastering,  gas  engine  construction  and  repair.  In 
this  sense  manual  training  is  a  culture  subject,  and,  in  pass- 
ing, it  may  be  said  that  many  more  boys  will  use  it  as  an 
avocation  than  as  a  vocation. 

4.  Vocational  subjects.  For  the  purpose  of  this  dis- 
cussion we  define  a  vocational  subject  as  one  that  is  taught 
chiefly  for  its  contribution  to  making  a  student  fit  for  doing 
the  work  of  an  occupation,  and  is  pursued  by  the  student 
with  the  same  aim.  Algebra  is  not  a  vocational  subject  be- 
cause its  main  raison  d'etre  is  not  to  prepare  the  youth  for 
engineering  (the  only  occupation  in  which  algebra  could 
be  used).  Stenography  is  a  vocational  subject  because  the 
main  reason  for  teaching  it  is  to  prepare  the  pupil  for  the 
gainful  occupation  of  a  stenographer. 

The  main  vocational  lines  teachable  in  the  junior  high 
school  are  homemaking,  dressmaking,  agriculture,  the  com- 
mercial occupations,  and  the  trades  of  the  artisan.  It  is  not 
claimed  that  any  one  of  these  occupational  courses  can  be 
completed  in  the  three  years  of  intermediate  school  or  at  the 
tender  age  of  early  adolescence.  A  good  beginning  can  be 
made,  however — a  beginning  that  will  materially  shorten  the 
period  of  apprenticeship  or  that  will  lay  a  good  foundation 
for  a  finishing  course  in  the  same  line  in  the  senior  high 
school- junior  college. 

(a)  Homemaking.  There  have  been  many  objections 
to  the  boys  learning  an  occupation  in  the  junior  high  school, 
the  chief  being  that  it  forces  the  boy  to  choose  at  too  early 
an  age.  This  objection  cannot  be  levied  against  homemaking 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  (CONTINUED)  IO9 

for  girls.  Such  a  large  proportion  of  girls  become  home- 
makers  that  those  who  do  not  may  be  disregarded  as  being 
a  negligible  quantity.  No  parent  could  object  to  his  daugh- 
ter's learning  the  household  arts.  It  is  therefore  put  first  in 
the  list  of  vocational  subjects.  (It  is  not  necessary,  I  think, 
to  point  out  that  manual  training  does  not  stand  in  the  same 
relation  to  boys  that  homemaking  does  to  girls.  Manual 
training,  as  such,  is  not  an  occupational  course  at  all;  and 
only  a  few  boys  follow  a  vocation  that  can  be  remotely  con- 
nected up  with  it.  We  have  pointed  out  in  preceding  pages 
that  manual  training  has  its  chief  value  as  a  training  of  the 
senses,  and  is  more  closely  related  to  art,  music,  and  draw- 
ing than  to  any  purely  vocational  subject.) 

The  home-making  branches  best  fitted  for  early  adoles- 
cent girls  are  cooking  and  sewing.  These  subjects  have  a 
well  standardized  content  and  need  not  be  discussed  in  full 
in  this  connection.  The  chief  problem  is  where  to  place  them 
in  the  three-year  course.  In  high  school  sewing  is  usually 
taught  in  the  ninth  and  cooking  in  the  tenth  grade.  In  some 
schools  the  two  courses  are  taught  through  the  two  years 
but  on  alternate  days.  It  may  with  assurance  be  stated, 
then,  that  these  two  subjects  should  be  taught  in  the  last 
two  years  of  the  junior  high  school,  whether  it  has  a  three 
or  a  four  year  curriculum. 

As  many  school  systems  provide  sewing  one  day  per 
week  in  fifth  and  sixth  grades,  and  some  junior  high  schools 
continue  sewing  on  the  same  scale  through  the  first  year 
of  the  intermediate  curriculum,  many  girls  want  a  change  at 
the  end  of  that  time.  There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  no  good 
reason  why  cooking  should  not  precede  sewing  as  a  five-day- 
a-week  course.  Therefore,  in  three-year  junior  high  schools 
(seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  and  tenth  grades),  cooking  may 
best  be  taught  in  the  second  year  and  sewing  in  the  third, 


IIO  THE   JUNIOR   HIGH   SCHOOL 

it  being  understood  that  the  work  be  taken  for  ninety  min- 
utes each  day  and  that  credit  for  one  full  year  of  high  school 
work  be  allowed  for  each  of  the  two  subjects. 

(b)  Dressmaking.     Only  the  very    beginnings    of    a 
course  in  dressmaking  can  be  given  in  junior  high  school. 
It  would  be  taught  under  the  name  of  sewing.    No  differen- 
tiation need  be  made  in  sewing  as  a  branch  of  the  general 
vocational  course  of  home-making  from  sewing  as  part  of 
a  dressmaking  course. 

(c)  Agriculture.     We  have  discussed  the  subject  of 
elementary  agriculture  as  a  science.     While  it  should  be 
taught  as  a  science,  and  should  be  adapted  somewhat  to  a 
class  of  students  who  do  not  have  farming  in  mind  as  an 
occupation,  its  chief  raison  d'etre  in  a  public  school  curri- 
culum is  laying  the  foundation  for  vocational  agriculture  in 
the  senior  high  school- junior  college.     A  valuable  product 
of  the  course  is  the  vocational  guidance  result.    That  is,  the 
course  may  open  to  the  boy  such  an  enchanting  vista  in  soil 
cultivation  that  he  may  be  led  to  select  agriculture  as  his 
life-occupation. 

Elementary  agriculture  should  make  use  of  a  laboratory 
and  propagation  house.  The  pupils  must  see  plants  germi- 
nate and  grow.  This  objective  teaching  is  especially  desir- 
able with  pupils  of  the  intermediate  school  age.  The  prepa- 
ration of  the  soil,  the  propagation  of  plants,  the  cultivation, 
irrigation,  and  enrichment  of  the  ground — these  are  elements 
of  vocational  training  par  excellence.  Computation  of  the 
costs  and  profits  of  farming  is  also  a  valuable  aid  to  occu- 
pational training  as  well  as  to  vocational  guidance. 

(d)  Commercial  vocations  include  a  large  number  of 
occupations,  only  a  few  of  which  can  be  taught  directly  in 
the  junior  high  school.    The  most  successful  beginnings  can 
be  made  in  preparation  for  the  vocations  of  stenographer, 


COURSES   Of   STUDY  (CONTINUED)  III 

typist,  bookkeeper,  clerk,  and  merchant.  The  best  voca- 
tional results  can  be  obtained  where  the  pupil  puts  in  part 
of  the  day  in  the  practical  application  to  business  of  the 
principles  and  facts  learned  in  the  school-room.  But,  the 
courses  are  usually  planned  with  the  idea  of  the  work  being 
continued  by  the  student  in  the  senior  high  school.  In 
many  cases,  however,  a  finishing  commercial  course  will 
have  to  be  planned  to  fill  the  needs  of  young  people  who 
have  to  go  to  work  at  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age. 

In  the  regular  curriculum  provision  may  be  made  for  the 
pupil's  taking  household  accounts  in  the  first  year,  elemen- 
tary bookkeeping  in  the  second  year,  and  business  accounts 
in  the  third  year.  A  more  conventional  course  would  give 
commercial  arithmetic  in  the  first  year  and  bookkeeping  in 
the  second  and  third  years.  Of  course  the  courses  in  com- 
mercial work  would  be  elective. 

Typing  is  a  very  attractive  subject  to  young  people.  It 
may  be  advisable  for  all  the  pupils  to  take  lessons  on  the 
typewriter  until  they  can  all  write  with  ease  and  rapidity. 
This  sort  of  work  can  be  done  in  odd  hours  and  before  and 
after  school.  But  as  a  vocational  course,  it  must  be  pursued 
by  the  pupil  with  greater  avidity  and  with  more  serious  pur- 
pose. Accuracy  and  speed  must  be  attained;  great  skill  in 
variety  of  work  must  be  acquired ;  and  the  mechanism  of  the 
machine  must  be  thoroughly  understood.  These  results  can- 
not be  secured  in  less  than  three  semesters'  work  of  at  least 
sixty  minutes  per  day.  Ordinarily,  the  first  three  semesters 
of  the  junior  high  school  course  would  be  the  time  for 
typing. 

Shorthand  appeals  to  the  adolescent  instinct  for  a  secret 
code  or  language.  There  is  great  practical  utility  in  the  sub- 
ject. There  is  a  possibility  of  doing  all  our  writing  with 
pencil  in  the  shorthand  code :  it  would  save  time  and  paper. 


112  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

As  a  vocational  subject  it  is  of  great  importance.  Commer- 
cial accuracy,  speed,  and  readability  cannot  be  acquired  in 
less  than  three  semesters  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  minutes 
per  day.  If  the  pupil  is  going  to  work  at  the  end  of  his 
junior  high  school  course,  he  should  take  his  stenography 
during  the  last  three  semesters  that  he  is  in  school.  If  the 
pupil  is  going  to  senior  high  school,  his  intensive  study  of 
shorthand  had  best  be  delayed  until  the  last  year  of  his 
school  course. 

The  principles  of  clerical  work  may  be  learned  in  connec- 
tion with  bookkeeping,  typing,  and  stenography ;  pupils  may 
get  practice  in  clerical  work  through  working  in  the  prin- 
cipal's office,  and  in  connection  with  student  body  finance 
and  school  records.  Business  principles  and  practice  may  be 
gotten  in  the  same  manner,  and  in  the  management  of  stu- 
dent affairs,  especially  of  a  co-operative  book  and  supplies 
store,  or  of  a  cafeteria.  Work  in  stores  or  in  the  management 
of  a  paper  route  gives  some  practice  in  business  and  clerical 
work,  and  is  worthy  of  encouragement  if  it  does  not  inter- 
fere with  regular  school  work. 

(e)  Artisan's  trades  may  be  begun  in  the  junior  high 
school  in  a  small  way,  especially  shoemaking,  cobbling,  plas- 
tering, paper-hanging,  building,  carpentry,  cabinet-making, 
glove-making,  corset-making,  concrete-mixing,  mat-weav- 
ing, basketry,  pottery,  book-binding,  printing,  tinning,  ma- 
chine-repairing, blasksmithy,  plumbing,  electric-wiring, 
sign-painting,  upholstering,  barbering,  "practical"-nursing, 
laundering,  housekeeping,  and  manicuring.  The  beginnings 
of  these  vocational  courses  can  be  gotten  in  connection  with 
the  regular  courses  described  in  this  and  the  preceding  chap- 
ter. The  whole  physical,  nervous,  and  mental  being  of  the 
adolescent  cries  out  for  these  things.  Without  them  the 
boy  or  girl  becomes  stunted  and  unnatural;  with  them, 


COURSES   OF   STUDY  (CONTINUED)  113 

growth  is  normal,  school  life  becomes  real  life.  These  voca- 
tional activities  are  a  tonic  for  a  constitution  fearfully 
shaken  by  the  ferment  of  adolescence  going  on  within. 

(f)  Practical  arts.  Finally,  music,  art,  dramatics,  pub- 
lic speaking,  English  composition — though  taught  as  cul- 
ture subjects — become  vocational  subjects  for  those  students 
who  plan  to  become  musicians,  artists,  actors,  public  speak- 
ers or  writers. 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

PRINCIPAL  AND  TEACHERS 

1.  Manning  the  junior  high  school.  One  of  the  first 
problems  confronting  the  superintendent  who  has  secured 
his  board's  adoption  of  the  six-three-four  plan  is  that  of 
providing  a  faculty  and  manager  for  his  junior  high  school. 
If  he  plans  to  place  at  once  the  seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  and 
tenth  grades  in  the  new  school,  he  must  secure  men  and 
women  of  unusual  tact,  interest,  and  ability.  Unless  he  can 
use  all  his  former  high  school  faculty  in  his  "senior  high 
school-junior  college,"  he  may  need  to  shift  several  high 
school  teachers  to  the  junior  high  schools.  This  may  be 
difficult.  Such  teachers  regard  it  as  a  demotion  even  if 
they  had  formerly  taught  only  the  lower  classmen.  How- 
ever, out  of  a  high  school  faculty  of  fifty,  there  will  be  a 
normal  resignation  of  five  or  six  per  year.  These  vacancies 
may  be  left  unfilled  until  the  enrollment  in  the  "senior  high 
school-junior  college"  justifies  an  increase  in  its  faculty 
up  to  fifty. 

The  expense  of  carrying  on  a  senior  high  school  of  two 
years  with  forty-five  instructors,  when  the  four  year  high 
school  had  only  fifty  will  probably  operate  to  convince  the 
superintendent  that  it  were  better  to  reduce  the  number  of 
years  in  the  senior  high  school  gradually.  A  plan  similar  to 
the  following  might  be  arranged : 

Grades  Jr.  H.  S.  T'ch'rs.  Grades  Sr.  H.  S.    T'ch'rs. 
1st  Half  Year  of  the          7th  and  8th  20        9th,  10th,  llth,  12th  50 

Experiment 
2nd  Half  Year  7,  8    and  B9  24        A9,  10,  11,  12  48 


3rd  Half  Year  7,  8 

4th  Half  Year  7,  8 
5th  Half  Year 

1st  Half  Year  7,  8 

2nd  Half  Year  7,  8 

3rd  Half  Year  7,  8 

4th  Half  Year  7,  8 


28  10,  11,  12  44 

9,  BIO  32  A10,  11  12  42 

9,  10  35  11,  12  38 

or,  better  still 

20  9,  10,  11,  12  50 

B9  24  A9,  10,  11,  12,  B13  48 

9  28  10,  11,  12,  13  46 

9,  BIO  32  A10,  11,  12,  13,  B14  44 


5th  Half  Year  7,  8,  9,  10  35       11,  12,  13,  14  42 

114 


PRINCIPAL   AND    TEACHERS  11$ 

In  case,  however,  that  grades  7,  8,  9,  and  10  are  com- 
pressed into  a  three-year  course,  the  junior  high  schools 
will  not  need  so  many  teachers.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
greater  number  of  pupils  that  will  stay  in  school  may  require 
a  still  larger  faculty. 

The  senior  high  school  being  taken  care  of  by  the  natural 
resignation  of  teachers,  the  increase  in  the  faculty  of  the 
junior  high  school  will  be  taken  care  of  by  adding  new 
teachers  drawn  from  the  universities  and  teachers'  colleges. 
The  nucleus  of  this  teaching  force  will  be  the  grade  teachers 
that  are  taken  over  when  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  are 
transferred  to  the  junior  high  schools.  Experience  has 
shown  that  these  women  develop  into  the  very  best  type  of 
junior  high  school  teachers.  With  further  college  education 
secured  in  summer  schools  and  with  a  greater  breadth  of 
view  brought  about  by  the  spirit  of  the  new  institution,  these 
teachers  become  the  very  models  for  the  new  additions  to 
the  faculties. 

2.  The  principal.  So  much  depends  upon  the  principal 
of  the  junior  high  school — an  institution  so  new  that  there 
are ,  no  precedents  by  which  to  go — that  a  separate  para- 
graph must  be  devoted  to  the  subject.  Unless  an  unusual 
woman  can  be  found,  the  principal  should  be  a  man.  On 
account  of  the  war  the  faculty  must  for  years  to  come  be 
largely  of  women,  and  yet  the  boys  of  the  adolescent  age 
should  come  in  personal,  intimate  touch  with  at  least  one 
man.  ;Even  the  girls  should  feel  the  fatherly  hand  in  the 
guidance  of  their  young  lives.  The  principal  should  be  a 
man  of  maturity  and  of  considerable  teaching  experience. 
There  are  two  attitudes  either  of  .which  the  principal  may 
assume  toward  his  pupils — that  of  the  firm  but  sympathetic 
father  or  that  of  the  intimate  but  protecting  elder  brother. 
The  one  he  chooses  must  depend  upon  his  age,  experience, 


Il6  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOI, 

and  character.  An  unmarried  principal,  of  thirty-three  years 
or  under  would  scarcely  fail  to  make  himself  ludicrous  in 
the  role  of  father.  The  married  man  of  over  .thirty-three 
would  scarcely  make  himself  less  ridiculous  in  the  part  of 
elder  brother.  But  any  other  attitude  must  be  cautiously 
avoided,  especially  that  of  boyishness,  of  the  gallant,  of  the 
suspicious  moral  guide,  of  the  indifferent  employer,  of  the 
easy  grandfather,  or  of  the  indulgent  father  or  brother.  An 
experienced  man  may  mix  among  the  boys,  inspiring  their 
respect  for  his  vast  accumulation  of  information,  for  his 
bravery  and  hardy  manhood,  much  as  the  scoutmaster  among 
the  Boy  Scouts.  Valuable  is  the  principal  who  can  coach  the 
boys  in  athletics  taking  active  part  and  'showing  them  how 
the  thing  is  done.  At  the  very  least,  he  must  have  a  real 
interest  in  boys'  sports  and  must  be  active  enough  to  get  out 
with  them  to  advise,  encourage,  discuss,  and  appreciate. 

The  principal  must  be  a  good  thinker  and  a  good  organ- 
izer. He  must  have  ideas  on  education  worked  out  with  the 
aid  of  his  reading  and  personal  experiences.  He  must  be- 
lieve in  the  plan  he  is  called  upon  to  put  into  practice.  He 
must  not  regard  his  present  position  merely  as  a  stepping 
stone  to  a  high  school  principalship.  He  should  be  a  leader 
in  the  perfecting  of  the  junior  high  school  as  a  functioning 
institution.  He  must  inspire  the  confidence  of  his  teachers 
and  of  the  public.  He  is  not  merely  an  institution  manager, 
a  chief  clerk,  a  detective,  a  police  officer,  an  executioner,  a 
maker  of  programs,  an  executive ;  but  he  is  the  'leader  in 
school  matters,  the  truest  judge  of  adolescent  nature,  the 
one  head  through  which  all  departments,  all  classes,  all 
activities  are  correlated.  He  must  have  a  vision  or  an  ideal 
toward  which  his  school  is  to  be  |led  to  tend ;  he  must  be 


PRINCIPAL    AND   TEACHERS  117 

tactful  in  his  relations  to  the  elementary  schools  and  to  the 
senior  high  school.  He  must  be  close  in  the  confidence  of 
the  superintendent. 

3.  The  teachers.  What  shall  be  said  of  the  kind  of 
teachers  we  want  for  our  early  adolescent  children?  For 
our  boys,  do  we  want  all  women  ?  For  our  girls,  do  we  want 
all  men?  Can  we  get  what  we  want  or  what  the  children 
ought  to  have  ?  There  seems  to  be  a  feeling  growing,  to  the 
effect  that  our  schools  are  overfemininized,  that  we  should 
have  strong,  manly  men  for  our  boys  and  even  for  our  girls. 
"Leave  it  to  a  board  of  education  composed  of  men,"  said 
a  woman  candidate  for  election  as  a  board  member,  "and  we 
shall  soon  have  only  women  teachers.  We  want  a  few  men 
teachers  who  will  excite  the  right  kind  of  admiration  from 
both  boys  and  girls."  We  seem  to  be  getting  just  now  a 
higher  type  of  men  in  the  profession  of  teaching.  As  teach- 
ers' salaries  rise,  the  profession  will  attract  more  and  more 
young  men ;  as  more  and  more  men  enter  the  profession, 
young  men  will  come  to  regard  it  a  man's  job  and  will  pre- 
pare for  it. 

At  present  in  high  school  the  field  seems  to  be  divided 
by  comtmon  consent.  Boys'  physical  culture,  commercial 
branches,  manual  training,  the  sciences,  seem  to  be  men's 
subjects;  English,  domestic  science  and  art,  Latin,  girls' 
physical  culture,  and  art  seem  to  be  women's  subjects;  while 
history,  mathematics,  modern  languages,  and  music  seem  to 
be  neutral  ground  occupied  jointly  by  both  sexes.  On  the 
whole,  however,  even  among  the  neutral  subjects,  civics, 
higher  mathematics,  Spanish,  and  band  and  orchestra  music 
are  in  most  cases  taught  by  men,  while  European  history, 
algebra,  German,  French,  and  vocal  music  seem  to  be  in 
women's  .province. 

If  this  seeming  division  is  carried  down  into  junior  high 
school  the  proportion  will  be  about  three  women  to  one  man ; 


Il8  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

if  carried  up  into  junior  college,  the  proportion  there  will  be 
the  reverse.  This  would  fulfill  the  desire  and  belief  of  those 
who  believe  that  the  educational  system  should  start  with 
all  women  and  end  with  all  men  teachers.  In  kindergarten 
all  women  and  no  men ;  in  the  elementary  schools,  90% 
women  teachers,  10%  men  (manual,  physical  teachers,  and 
principals)  ;  in  the  junior  high  .school,  jo%  women,  30% 
men;  in  the  senior  high  school-junior  college,  30%  women, 
70%  men ;  in  the  universities,  colleges,  and  normal  schools, 
10%  women,  go%  men;  in  the  research  foundations  and 
experimental  stations,  practically  no  women,  all  men. 
Whether  this  is  logical  or  not,  it  seems  as  if  it  might  be  a 
safe  guide  at  least  when  the  war  is  over. 

A  question  that  the  superintendent  must  consider  is,  shall 
I  seek  for  junior  high  school,  young  or  old  teachers,  fresh 
graduates  or  teachers  ,of  long  experience?  One  superin- 
tendent has  signified  in  an  article  contributed  to  a  profes- 
sional magazine  his  attitude.  He  wants  older  and  more  ex- 
perienced teachers  for  the  early  adolescents  than  for  senior 
high  school.  He  believes  that  the  first  year  of  the  secondary 
course  is  so  important,  such  a  delicate  time  for  the  pupil  that 
it  would  be  fatal  to  leave  it  to  inexperienced  teachers.  Many 
will  agree  with  this  plan,  and  it  will  for  the  present  easily 
be  carried  out  by  having  all  seventh  year  work  taught  by 
the  grade  teachers  that  are  taken  over  from  the  elementary 
school.  Such  new  teachers  as  are  added  to  the  corps  might 
be  assigned  to  eighth,  ninth,  and  tenth  grade  classes. 

4.  College-trained  versus  normal-trained  teachers. 
In  nearly  all  states  high  school  teachers  are  selected  from 
among  college  and  university  graduates,  grade  teachers  from 
normal  school  graduates.  The  result  has  been  that  normal 
schools  have  devoted  their  efforts  to  teaching  elementary 
school  methods,  management,  and  problems.  The  depart- 


PRINCIPAL   AND    TEACHERS  IIQ 

merits  of  education  in  colleges  and  universities  have  con- 
centrated their  attention  on  high  school  methods  and  prob- 
lems. The  junior  high  school  embraces  two  grades  that 
were  formerly  in  the  'jurisdiction  of  the  normal  school  and 
one  or  two  that  were  formerly  in  the  province  of  university 
tutelage.  Arguments  are  now  offered  pro  and  con  as  to 
which  institution  shall  train  the  junior  high  school  teachers. 
The  university  has  assumed  that  it  is  its  work  because  the 
junior  high  is  a  secondary  school  in  which  the  high  school 
branches  are  taught,  and  because  it  has  'the  machinery  for 
instructing  ninth  and  tenth  grade  teachers  which  may  now 
be  extended  to  seventh  and  eighth  grade  teachers  without 
additional  effort  or  equipment,  and  because  the  teacher  can 
secure  in  the  university  without  changing  schools  all  the 
advanced  extensions  of  the  cultural  branches  he  will  have 
to  teach.  It  is  argued  that  the  normal  schools  have  become 
purely  professional  institutions,  and  that  a  person  planning 
to  teach  in  junior  high  school  would  have  to  take  his  higher 
academic  training  in  a  college  or  university  and  then  trans- 
fer to  a  normal  school  for  his  professional  training. 

The  normal  schools,  on  the  other  hand,  lay  the  emphasis 
on  the  kind  of  teacher  to  be  produced.  They  say  that  the 
university  training  tends  to  make  the  teacher  interested 
principally  in  the  subject  to  be  taught  and  not  the  child, 
while  the  normal  school  studies  the  child  and  concentrates 
upon  teaching  the  child.  They  argue  that  they  will  not  need 
to  give  anything  but  professional  training,  for  the  teacher- 
students  will  come  to  them  with  sufficient  academic  educa- 
tion secured  in  the  junior  colleges  of  the  cities  and  lar;,v 
towns  The  normal  school  will  then  maintain  a  course  for 
graduates  of  the  twelfth  grade  who  wish  to  teach  in  the 
elementary  schools  and  a  course  for  graduates  of  the  four- 
teenth grade  who  wish  to  teach  in  junior  high  school.  In 


I2O  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

the  latter  courses  the  emphasis  would  be  placed  upon  study 
of  the  adolescent  child. 

The  university  asserts  that  the  normal  school  has  become 
an  institution  for  women  only  and  cites  such  cases  as  the 
San  Francisco  Normal  School  with  only  a  dozen  men  in  a 
school  of  a  thousand  women.  Such  a  school  could  not  hope 
to  attract  men  in  adequate  numbers  for  the  needs  of  the 
many  junior  high  schools.  The  university  is  already  pre- 
dominantly a  men's  school  and  the  proportion  of  men  over 
women  is  increasing.  ;A  man  wanting  to  become  a  teacher 
would  be  proud  to  attend  university,  glad  to  have  the  chance 
to  mingle  with  other  men  preparing  for  other  professions. 

The  normal,  school  replies  that  the  pendulum  is  beginning 
to  swing  back,  that  a  reaction  has  already  set  in.  Once  the 
normal  schools  had  a  goodly  number  of  men  students,  lost 
them  through  the  university's  assumption  of  the  training  of 
high  school  teachers,  and  is  now  beginning  to  get  them  back 
by  establishing  classes  and  equipment  for  the  training  of 
teachers  of  so-called  special  subjects — manual  training, 
printing,  business  and  clerical  work,  vocational  courses  lead- 
ing to  the  trades.  The  training  of  junior  high  school  teach- 
ers will  fall  in  line  with  this  movement. 

The  question  has  not  been  settled.  Its  solution  will  large- 
ly lie  with  the  superintendents  of  our  cities  and  towns  and 
will  depend  upon  the  kind  of  teachers  they  want  for  their 
junior  high  schools. 

5 .  A  teachers'  college  for  junior  high  school  teachers. 
Another  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  presented  in  section  4, 
is  the  establishment  of  a  college  designed  especially  for  the 
training  of  teachers  of  both  elementary  and  high  schools. 
Such  an  institution  is  Colorado  Teachers  College  at  Greeley, 
which  prepares  its  graduates  to  teach  in  both  classes  of 
schools.  It  is  a  professional  school — a  normal  school,  in 


PRINCIPAL   AND   TEACHERS  121 

fact — but  maintains  two  distinct  courses,  one  for  the  elemen- 
tary school  teacher,  the  other  for  the  high  school  teacher. 
Its  success  has  been  tremendous.  Peabody  College  for 
Teachers  is  another  such  institution.  In  a  state  that  already 
maintains  several  normal  schools,  one  could  be  singled  out 
to  become  a  college  for  junior  high  school  teachers.  Or, 
the  agricultural  college  could  add  the  new  courses  'necessary 
for  training  teachers,  this  especially  in  a  state  whose  single 
large  industry  is  farming. 

There  seem  to  be  two  distinct  movements  connected  with 
the  university  development — one  toward  centralizing  all 
state-supported  professional  schools  in  ;one  university,  the 
other  toward  grouping  the  schools  in  two  or  three  centers. 
In  a  small  compactly  settled  state,  the  former  tendency  seems 
to  be  the  stronger ;  but,  in  the  larger  states  where  there  are 
two  or  three  quite  distinct  centers  of  population,  the  latter 
tendency  seems  to  prevail.  Massachusetts  would  be  an 
example  of  the  first,  where  the  tendency  is  to  group  the  pro- 
fessional schools  about  Harvard ;  Washington  is  an  example 
of  the  latter  where  the  two  centers  of  population,  Seattle 
and  Spokane,  separated  by  a  high  range  of  mountains  and 
by  many  miles  of  space,  tend  to  create  two  professional 
school  centers.  Seattle  is  the  seat  of  the  university,  where 
most  of  the  professional  schools  are  located  and  where  a 
school  of  forestry  and  a  school  for  high  school  teachers  are 
sure  to  become  powerful.  Spokane,  on  the  other  hand,  has 
a  right  to  be  the  center  for  agricultural  education,  for  the 
training  of  elementary  teachers,  and  should  expect  to  be- 
come the  seat  of  an  institution  for  training  junior  high 
school  teachers.  California  and  Texas  are  states  that  may 
be  expected  to  exhibit  the  two-centers  idea.  In  California 
San  Francisco  Bay  is  the  seat  of  the  powerful  university  and 
of  two  large  normal  schools.  Los  Angeles,  with  its  million 


122  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL, 

people,  can  expect  to  group  about  its  normal  school  other 
state  colleges.  Here  should  be  located  its  teachers'  college 
to  supply  the  needs  of  the  junior  high  schools  of  the  state. 

Such  a  state  teachers'  college  might  offer  courses  that 
would  be  extensions  of  the  courses  offered  in  junior  high 
school.  In  all  probability,  however,  the  local  junior  colleges 
will  be  ample  to  provide  sufficient  instruction  along  this  line. 
A  teacher  who  has  four  years  of  academic  work  beyond  what 
he  is  to  teach  will  have  sufficient  subject-matter  knowledge. 
What  he  will  then  need  is  a  wide  knowledge  of  methods  of 
teaching  those  subjects,  a  large  professional  interest,  and 
practice  in  teaching  under  the  careful  advice  and  suggestion 
of  a  master  teacher.  The, college  instructors  should  be  men 
and  women  with  wide  experience  in  teaching  and  unusually 
versatile.  They  should  be  capable  of  meeting  any  emer- 
gency that  might  arise  in  an  ordinary  class-room ;  they 
should  inspire  their  pupil-teachers  with  the  greatest  desire 
to  teach ;  they  should  put  their  students  into  possession  of 
numberless  plans  and  ideas  connected  with  the  teaching  of 
the  subjects  to  be  taught;  but  above  all  they  should  lead 
those  student-teachers  to  understand  adolescent  boys  and 
girls,  and  how  to  treat  the  various  problems  likely  to  arise. 
The  physiology  and  psychology  of  the  adolescent  should  be 
thoroughly  understood  by  teachers  graduating  from  such 
an  institution. 

Such  a  teachers'  college  should  be  so  located  that  a  study 
of  boys  and  girls,  practice  teaching  in  junior  high  schools, 
and  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  chief  vocations  of 
the  state  may  be  possible  to  the  student-teachers.  A  large 
city  surrounded  by  farm  lands  would  be  ideal  in  a  state 
like  Iowa.  A  large  city  accessible  to  mines  and  factories 
would  be  ideal  for  Pennsylvania.  It  is  deplorable  that  so 
many  state  schools  have  been  distributed  as  political  sop  to 


PRINCIPAL   AND   TEACHERS  I2J 

keep  alive  communities  that  would  otherwise  languish  and 
die.  Such  a  location  is  decidedly  bad  for  a  normal  school. 
We  want  for  our  children  teachers  who  are  alive  and 
progressive,  teachers  who  have  seen  the  busy  world,  teach- 
ers who  are  urbane  not  rustic,  teachers  who  know  more  than 
our  children  and  who  live  in  the  twentieth  century.  For 
our  own  rural  and  village  schools  we  want  teachers  who 
know  farm  activities ;  for  manufacturing  cities  we  want 
teachers  who  can  explain  things  to  the  children  in  the  terms 
used  in  the  industries ;  for  mining  camp  towns  we  want 
teachers  who  understand  the  hearts  that  beat  under  the 
rough  exterior  of  miners.  Finally,  the  vocational  life  of  a 
community  re-acts  upon  the  schools,  especially  its  secondary 
schools,  and  vocational  or  pre-vocational  courses  must  book 
large  in  determining  the  tone  of  the  junior  high  school. 

6.  An  organization  of  junior  high  school  teachers. 
Nothing  will  contribute  so  much  to  the  high  character  of 
the  junior  high  school  teaching  body  as  an  institute  devoted 
to  their  interests.  A  convention  of  all  such  teachers  within 
a  large  city  or  within  a  county  embracing  several  communi- 
ties should  be  held  three  or  four  times  a  year,  perhaps  every 
month.  At  this  institute  well  prepared  programs  should  be 
provided  in  which  wide  discussion  may  be  given  to  their 
problems.  There  are  so  many  questions  unsettled  as  yet  that 
such  a  convention  could  scarcely  fail  to  find  a  plethora  of 
interesting  and  valuable  subjects.  Organization,  purpose, 
courses  of  study,  methods  of  teaching,  grades  and  promo- 
tion, textbooks,  relationship  to  the  lower  and  higher  schools, 
student-government,  student  activities,  records  and  files, 
finance,  part-time  pupils,  supervised  study,  length  of  periods, 
length  of  school  year,  frequency  of  promotion,  making  the 
transition  from  the  grades  easy  and  pleasant — these  and  a 


J24  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH   SCHOOL 

hundred  other  subjects  might  well  be  discussed  to  the  great 
profit  of  all  teachers  concerned. 

During  the  year  and  as  often  as  possible,  conferences 
should  be  held  among  the  principals , of  junior  high  schools, 
or  among  the  teachers  of  a  certain  subject,  or  among  teach- 
ers of  the  new  pupils,  or  among  teachers  of  special  pupils. 
These  smaller  committees  concentrating  upon  limited  sub- 
jects of  interest  will  be  able  to  work  out  very  idefinite  plans. 
A  committee  of  five  or  ten  members,  each  member  represent- 
ing a  distinct  community  or  section  or  school,  will  find  itself 
suited  to  doing  definite  things,  settling  definite  questions.  In 
this  way  there  will  come  to  be  a  standard  tending  to  uniform- 
ity among  the  schools.  The  distinct  problems  of  each 
school  may  be  relied  upon  to  offer  opportunity  for  sufficient 
originality  and  initiative. 

Teachers'  organizations  are  subject  to  some  dangers, 
temptations  that,  if  yielded  to,  may  discredit  them  before 
the  world.  One  of  these  temptations  is  to  use  their  strength 
for  selfish  purposes.  It  may  be  to  raise  salaries,  secure 
shorter  hours  of  work,  exclude  outsiders  from  positions, 
restrict  a  line  of  work  to  one  sex,  to  unmarried  persons,  or 
to  graduates  of  some  one  institution.  Nothing  injures  the 
profession  more  than  selfish  aims  of  teachers'  clubs.  Some- 
times these  clubs  are  secret  in  their  meetings  and  in  their 
operations.  A  suspected  organization  of  graduates  of  a 
certain  state  university  to  secure  all  the  best  positions  in  the 
Philippine  service  resulted  in  a  deterioration  of  the  esprit 
de  corps  of  the  excellent  body  of  Americans  teaching  in  the 
Islands.  Nothing  so  discourages  a  worker  as  the  feeling 
that  promotion  will  be  determined  not  by  merit  but  by  mem- 
bership in  some  organization  organized  to  promote  the  selfish 
interests  of  its  members. 


PRINCIPAL   AND   TEACHERS  125 

Junior  high  school  teachers  should  be  represented  in  state 
and  national  educational  associations  ;  and  a  promiment  place 
in  the,  programs  of  the  annual  meetings  should  be  secured. 
This  new  institution  must  become  national ;  it  meets  a  uni- 
versal need,  but  cannot  render  its  best  service  unless  the 
widely  scattered  schools  come  together  in  a  single  purpose. 
7.  Literature  on  the  junior  high  school.  The  output 
of  literature  on  the  six-six  plan  is  already  considerable,  but 
chiefly  in  the  form  of  contributions  to  educational  maga- 
zines. One  has  to  subscribe  ,for  a  large  number  of  such 
publications  in  order  to  get  such  information  as  has  been 
published.  Some  school  book  publishing  house  would  do 
great  service  to  the  profession  if  all  these  articles  could  be 
collected  and  printed  in' book  form,  filling  probably  two  or 
three  volumes.  Permission  to  reprint  this  material  could, 
very  likely,  be  easily  obtained  from  the  authors  and  pub- 
lishers. In  this  way  every  school  could  possess  a  source 
book  on  the  junior  high  school  idea  and  plan  that  would  be 
of  great  value  to  teachers. 

But  there  is  -need  for  much  more  material  on  the  subject. 
There  is  need  for  concise  descriptions  of  the  actual  exper- 
iences of  school  superintendents  in  getting  the  plan  adopted 
by  the  board  and  approved  by  the  people.  Such  a  mono- 
graph as  Superintendent  Bunker's  Reorganisation  of  Sec- 
ondary Education  is  of  the  very  greatest  value,  and  espe- 
cially the  chapters  that  tell  of  his  actual  experiences  in 
Berkeley  in  working  out  his  curricula  and  in  .'making  a  go 
of  the  plan.  A  volume  devoted  to  Superintendent  Francis' 
experiences  in  Los  Angeles,  another  to  Superintendent 
Chadsey's  experience  in  Detroit,  and  still  another  to  Super- 
intendent Horn's  work  in  Houston  would  prove  of  large 
value.  Such  an  enterprise  would  be  welcomed  by  thousands 
of  teachers,  and  school  administrators.  Books  of  this  kind 


126  TH£  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

should  be  minute  and  personal,  describing  actual  conditions 
that  prevailed,  and  giving  the  success  and  difficulties  in  the 
inauguration  of  the  scheme  step  by  step. 

Then  we  need  books  or  exhaustive  articles  written  by 
principals  of  junior  high  schools  the  country  over  on  the 
detailed  work  of  their  offices,  of  the  establishment  and  build- 
ing up  of  their  schools,  of  the  kind  of  teachers  they  find  best 
suited  to  the  teaching  of  adolescents,  of  the  attitude  of  the 
pupils  themselves  toward  the  school  and  toward  the  new 
plan,  of  the  reaction  on  the  community.  We  need  pages  and 
pages  of  statistics  that  are  unflinchingly  accurate  and  that 
really  tell  us  something  about  the  number  of  young  people 
saved  to  the  higher  schools,  the  reduction  of  retardation,  the 
raising  or  lowering  of  grades,  the  effect  of  the  various  new 
studies  upon  the  pupils,  the  logical  place  of  certain  studies 
in  the  curricula,  the  length  of  the  school  day,  the  success  of 
supervised  study,  the  hundred  other  questions  that  are  upper- 
most in  our  minds.  We  want  these  statistics  in  detail  first ; 
then  we  want  the  superintendent  and  principals  to  draw  in- 
ferences from  those  statistics.  We  want  to  know  their  inter- 
pretation of  why  the  figures  are  so  and  so.  We  want  the 
local  coloring,  even  the  personal  equation  which  is  always 
present  in  every  group  of  statistics,  and  is  of  immeasurable 
value.  We  are  not  so  much  interested  in  proving  our  point 
in  all  this,  as  in  ascertaining  the  truth.  Lincoln's  attitude 
should  be  ours.  We  are  not  concerned  so  much  as  to 
whether  God  is  on  our  side  as  we  are  to  know  whether  in 
this  matter  we  are  on  God's  side.' 

Finally,  we  want  to  hear  from  the  teachers  on  the  many 
questions  that  they  alone  can  answer.  What  do  they  think 
about  the  textbooks  ?  What  are  their  experiences  in  adapt- 
ing the  high  school  subjects  to  early  adolescents?  What  is 
the  re-action  upon  them  of  the  longer  school  day,  of  the 


PRINCIPAL   AND   TEACHERS  127 

all-year  school  term?  What  difficulties  do  they  encounter 
in  getting  at  various  pupils?  With  what  classes  do  they 
like  best  to  work?  In  their  actual  experiences  do  they  find 
some  children  "born  short?"  What  methods  and  plans  do 
they  use  in  teaching  this  subject  or  that? — in  teaching  chil- 
dren how  to  study? — in  directing  religious  education? — in 
helping  adolescents  to  acquire  proper  moral  standards? 
What  is  the  effect  of  teaching  in  junior  high  school  upon 
men  and  women?  Does  it  keep  them  sweet  and  human  or 
tend  to  make  them  other-worldly?  What  is  its  effect  upon 
the  marriageability  of  women? — men?  Is  this  last  question 
of  any  value  to  the  race  ? — to  society  ? — to  the  success  of  the 
junior  high  school  plan? — to  the  pupils  that  come  under  the 
influence  of  such  teachers  ? 

It  may  be  seen  that  we  are  only  at  the  beginning  of  a 
period  of  flood — a  deluge  of  books,  pamphlets  and  maga- 
zine articles  dealing  with  the  problems  of  the  junior  high 
school.  It  will  be  well  for  the  cause  if  the  writers  of  these 
publications  have  originality  and  some  literary  ability.  It 
is  so  much  easier  to  get  a  pamphlet  read  if  it  be  made  easy 
reading.  Nevertheless,  a  lack  of  literary  grace  should  not 
deter  any  teacher  from  setting  her  experiences  and  best 
thoughts  down  in  writing.  Not  all  of  the  half-million  teach- 
ers in  America  will  read  these  writings.  No  one  has  time 
to  read  all  the  educational  publications.  Nevertheless  there 
is  a  growing  tendency  for  teachers  to  read  professional 
books  and  magazines  more  widely.  Some  school  superin- 
tendents require  a  certain  amount  of  educational  reading 
each  year,  say  one  book  on  general  professional  subjects,  one 
book  on  the  special  field  in  which  the  teacher  is  working,  and 
twenty-five  magazine  articles  or  pamphlets  dealing  with 
child-study  or  methods  of  teaching.  Such  a  requirement  is 


128  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOI, 

not  burdensome,  and  in  many  cases  is  far  below  what  the 
teacher  voluntarily  does. 

Just  one  more  word  along  this  line — that  may  be  relevant 
or  irrelevant.  Public  school  administrators — the  men  that 
are  actually  doing  things — are  letting  college  professors  get 
ahead  of  them  in  the  matter  of  writing  books.  It  is  high 
time  we  were  hearing  from  the  men  and  women  in  the 
field!  Of  course  we  are  grateful  to  the  college  professors 
for  publishing  their  theories  and  their  investigations.  We 
would  not  have  them  stop.  They  should  even  do  more  pub- 
lishing. But  so  also  should  superintendents,  principals  and 
teachers.  What  a  travesty  on  life  to  find  in  Who's  Who  the 
name  of  a  mediocre  professor  in  a  small  western  university, 
and  not  the  mention  of  the  name  of  a  certain  school  superin- 
tendent of  a  city  of  half  a  million  people — a  man  who  has 
effected  a  revolution  in  education !  Again,  casually  looking 
over  a  list  of  the  hundred  contributors  to  a  certain  one  of 
the  five  volumes  of  the  best  encyclopedia  of  education 
printed  in  America,  we  find  not  a  single  public  school  super- 
intendent or  principal !  Imagine  an  encyclopedia  of  medi- 
cine written  by  a  hundred  men  with  not  one  of  them 
a  practising  physician  or  surgeon ! 

8.  Heads  of  departments.  The  matter  of  creating 
heads  of  departments  in  high  schools  has  not  met  with  uni- 
versal approval.  In  large  schools  where  a  department  might 
have  eight  or  ten  teachers,  the  advantages  of  having  a  head 
teacher  are  obvious.  There  are  also  some  arguments  against 
the  plan — it  removes  the  principal  too  far  from  the  teacher ; 
it  converts  the  principal  into  a  mere  business  manager;  it 
departmentalizes  rather  than  humanizes  the  teaching;  it 
robs  the  teacher  of  his  individual  responsibility  in  matters  of 
selecting  textbooks  and  planning  his  work.  In  high  schools 
with  fewer  than  thirty  teachers  in  all,  the  plan  has  even  less 


PRINCIPAL   AND   TEACHERS  I2Q 

to  commend  it.  If  a  head  has  only  one  or  two  assistants, 
there  is  little  excuse  for  his  existence.  In  such  a  school  the 
principal  may  well  attend  to  the  actual  supervising  of  teach- 
ing. A  moderate-salaried  clerk  will  relieve  him  of  the  cleri- 
cal work  of  his  office.  In  some  high  schools  of  fewer  than 
thirty  teachers,  there  are  often  heads  of  departments  with 
no  assistant  teachers.  In  these  smaller  schools  the  practice 
of  having  heads  often  becomes  a  mere  excuse  for  paying 
one  teacher  more  than  another,  or  of  rewarding  a  merito- 
rious teacher  by  giving  him  a  high-sounding  title.  If  this  is 
all  there  is  to  it,  the  end  may  be  accomplished  in  a  more 
creditable  way. 

Shall  there,  then,  be  heads  of  departments  in  the  junior 
high  school?  If  such  a  school  had  two  thousand  pupils  and 
a  hundred  teachers,  there  might  be  some  reason  for  it.  But 
even  then  the  danger  of  making  the  instructors  teachers  of 
subjects  rather  than  of  children  would  be  a  strong  argument 
against  it.  As  we  are  committed  to  the  advocacy  of  the 
small  junior  high  school  with  a  faculty  not  to  exceed  thirty 
or  forty  teachers,  we  cannot  regard  the  practice  of  creating 
head  teachers  in  such  schools  as  anything  but  pernicious, 
with  no  good  effects  and  many  bad  ones. 

It  has  been  suggested  by  an  able  thinker  and  a  capable 
administrator  that  the  head  of  a  department  in  the  senior 
high  school  extend  his  authority  over  the  teachers  of  those 
subjects  in  the  junior  school.  With  great  deference 
to  the  opinions  of  this  administrator,  we  cannot  concur  in 
this  advice.  The  junior  high  school  must  be  independent, 
not  dominated  by  the  school  above  it.  Moreover  the  tend- 
ency in  the  senior  high  school  is  toward  strict  depart- 
mentalization, toward  making  the  subject-matter  the  im- 
portant thing.  Any  policy  that  would  tend  to  give  the  lower 
school  such  a  tendency  would  be  harmful.  Finally,  the 


130  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

teacher  in  the  lower  school  will  teach  in  two  or  more  fields. 
A  teacher  would  probably  teach  several  classes  of  English 
and  several  of  history.  If  subject  to  a  head  in  the  higher 
school,  he  would  have  a  divided  allegiance  that  would  not  be 
for  the  happiest  results.  Such  a  plan  would  defeat  the  policy 
of  closely  correlating  the  subjects  in  the  junior  high  school. 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 

TEACHING  IN  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

1 .  Aims  and  purposes.  In  a  most  instructive  book  on 
methods  of  teaching  in  high  school,  Professor  Parker,  of 
The  University  of  Chicago,  gives  as  the  ultimate  aims  of 
teaching  in  secondary  schools  the  endowing  of  students  with 
social  efficiency,  good  will,  and  capacity  for  innocent  enjoy- 
ment. Social  efficiency  embraces  economic,  domestic,  and 
civic  efficiency.  Putting  it  in  another  way,  the  aims  of  sec- 
ondary education  are  efficiency,  morality,  and  culture. 

As  the  proximate  or  immediate  aims  of  teaching  in  the 
junior  high  school,  we  shall  give  the  following:  (a)  The 
acquisition  of  habits  of  industry;  (b)  the  development  of 
sense  perception;  (c)  acquisition  of  motor  skill;  (d)  health 
and  physical  development;  (e)  acquisition  of  valuable  in- 
formation ;  ( f )  development  of  the  faculties  of  reasoning, 
retentiveness,  alertness,  and  quickness;  (g)  acquisition  of 
skill  in  expression;  (h)  the  development  of  a  liking  for 
clean,  wholesome  pleasures;  (i)  and  the  endowment  of  boys 
and  girls  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  purposefulness  of  their 
lives.  Some  of  these  purposes  of  educating  the  young  are 
best  taught  through  certain  subjects ;  others,  through  other 
subjects.  Each  teacher  will  ponder  over  this  matter  thor- 
oughly. If  he  finds  (that  the  subject  which  he  is  assigned 
to  teach  lacks  in  the  qualities  to  accomplish  the  desired  aims, 
or  if  he  finds  that  his  subject  is  anti-educational  in  its 
influence  upon  pupils,  he  should  in  all  conscience  refuse  to 
teach  it.  Surely  no  superintendent  would  compel  a  teacher 
to  teach  a  subject  contrary  to  the  conscience  of  the  teacher. 

Before  proceeding  to  a  further  discussion  of  methods  of 
teaching  the  various  subjects  so  as  to  accomplish  the  results 


132  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

given  above,  some  attention  must  be  given  to  the  mechanics 
of  teaching,  which  will  be  treated  under  the  headings  of  the 
Teacher,  the  Class-room,  Textbooks,  Libraries  and  Labora- 
tories. 

2.  The  teacher.  The  teacher  must  be  introspective. 
Before  beginning  to  teach  he  should  get  acquainted  with 
himself,  make  an  inventory  of  himself.  He  might  address  a 
questionnaire  to  himself,  the  questions  running  somewhat 
as  follows : 

Am  I  going  to  teach  for  the  money  there  is  in  it? 

Do  I  like  adolescent  boys  and  girls? 

I>o  I  understand  adolescents?  (If  so,  make  a  brief  in- 
ventory of  the  principal  physical  and  mental  characteristics 
.-of  (a)  the  adolescent  boy,  (b)  the  adolescent  girl.)  Do 
1  Teally  love  to  teach  children? — or  is  it  the  subject,  thait  I 
love  to  teach  ? 

Do  I  simply  know  the  subject-matter  of  the  subject? — or 
do  I  appreciate  the  large,  vital  purpose  of  that  subject? 

Have  I  thought  out  what  things  touching  the  subject 
/should  be  taught,  and  what  omitted  ? 

AWhat  should  be  the  effect  of  my  teaching  of  this  subject 
•upon  the  pupils  of  my  class  ? 

If  all  teachers  teach  this  subject  as  I  teach  it,  what  will 
be  the  effect  upon  society  and  upon  the  human  race? 

Are  my  physical,  mental,  and  moral  qualities  such  as 
will  set  a  good  example  for  my  pupils? 

Am  I  familiar  with  a  large  enough  number  of  methods  of 
teaching  that  I  can  vary  my  teaching  when  I  see  that  I  am 
not  getting  right  results? 

The  teacher  should  be  able  to  answer  all  of  these  questions 
:  satisfactorily. 

Then  the  teacher  should  have  an  eye  to  external  appear- 
ances. He  is  to  be  before  his  class  every  day  for  several 


TEACHING   IN   JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL  133 

months ;  his  appearance  and  actions  will  have  a  great  effect 
upon  his  pupils.  Dr.  Hall  cites  a  case  of  several  brothers 
living  in  an  interior  town  wanting  to  go  <to  sea,  one  after 
the  other.  This  desire  was  considered  unaccountable  until 
it  was  learned  that  a  picture  of  a  fine  ship  at  sea  had  hung 
in  the  bedroom  of  these  boys  during  their  years  of  ado- 
lescence. How  much  more  will  a  human,  living  teacher 
effect  those  who  look  at  him  day  after  day? 

The  teacher  in  the  junior  high  school  might  well  take 
an  inventory  of  his  appearance  by  asking :  Am  I  in  as  good 
health  as  I  can  be  ?  Am  I  vigorous,  active,  alert  ?  Do  I  keep 
my  body  well-groomed?  Do  I  dress  befittingly?  Do  my 
movements  betray  purposef ulness  ?  How  do  I  act  when  I 
am  unconscious  of  what  I  am  doing?  Do  I  have  any  odd  or 
disgusting  habits  that  bob  up  when  I  am  off  guard?  Am  I 
stiff  and  formal,  or,  am  I  informal  and  familiar?  Do  I 
act  as  if  I  am  lazy,  careless,  slovenly,  hot-tempered,  sarcas- 
tic, conceited,  humble,  over-bearing?  Do  I  act  as  if  I  would 
countenance  cheating,  flirting,  inattention,  slothfulness, 
familiarity?  Am  I  noisy  and  blustering?  Is  my  voice  loud, 
harsh,  whining,  or  lacking  in  strength?  Do  I  hear  and  see 
perfectly?  Do  I  show  weariness  readily?  Do  I  display 
anger  and  irritability  quickly?  Does  my  lip  curl  in  scorn 
without  due  provocation?  Do  my  appearance  and  actions 
indicate  that  I  have  been  beaten  in  the  race  of  life  ? — or  that 
I  regard  teaching  as  the  most  desirable  of  careers? 

While  the  class  will  size  up  the  'teacher,  the  teacher  must 
not  neglect  to  size  up  his  class,  to  know  his  pupils.  Some 
teachers  seem  never  to  know  but  a  few  of  their  pupils.  Even 
after  several  months'  teaching  them,  they  do  not  recognize 
the  pupils  outside  of  the  class.  It  is  highly  desirable  that 
a  teacher  should  know  each  pupil,  know  the  pupil's  other 
activities,  home  influences,  and  standing  with  his  associates. 


134  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

For  purposes  of  this  kind,  a  teacher  could  well  afford  to 
keep  a  private  card  system  on  which  to  note  his  impressions 
of  the  various  pupils.  In  this  way  the  teacher  will  come  to 
focus  his  attention  upon  the  children  more  than  upon  the 
subject  he  is  teaching.  By  noting  the  impressions,  gradually 
the  card  will  be  filled  out  with  valuable  data.  Teachers  may 
then  consult  among  themselves  about  the  pupil,  and  com- 
pare each  other's  experiences.  A  principal  could  readily 
check  up  the  teacher's  attitude  toward  teaching  by  looking 
over  the  notes  on  the  cards.  Warning,  however,  must  be 
offered  against  becoming  too  minute  in  analyzing  the  pupils. 
There  is  danger  that  the  teacher  will  come  to  regard  them  as 
so  many  pawns  upon  the  chessboard,  will  come  to  regard 
them  as  somtething  apart  from  himself,  detached,  inhuman. 
The  teacher  must  not  become  merely  an  experimenting 
psychologist;  he  must  be  warm  in  his  sympathetic  relation 
to  his  pupils. 

The  teacher  must  prepare  lesson-plans.  No  matter  how 
well  a  teacher  may  know  his  subject,  he  cannot  afford  to  go 
before  his  class  without  knowing  just  what  he  wants  to  bring 
out  in  teaching  the  lesson  before  him.  Each  lesson  must  be 
a  unit,  must  aim  to  accomplish  some  definite  object.  The 
lessons  day  by  day  must  proceed  toward  some  realizable 
goal ;  and  both  pupils  and  teachers  must  feel  that  they  are 
making  progress.  In  order  that  the  pupils  may  realize  that 
each  day's  work  is  a  step  toward  the  accomplishment  of  the 
whole  task,  the  teacher  must  have  the  whole  course  mapped 
out.  This  course-mapping  should  be  done  before  the  term 
begins  so  that  no  time  will  be  lost.  If  the  teacher  has  never 
before  taught  the  course,  he  should  make  a  general  plan  at 
the  beginning  of  the  term,  a  more  definite  plan  at  the  be- 
ginning of  each  week,  and  an  exact  outline  each  day.  If 
this  arrangement  is  carried  out,  it  will  not  take  more  than 


TEACHING  IN  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  135 

fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  each  day  for  the  teacher  to  lay 
•out  the  lesson.  He  will  then  have  an  abundance  of  time 
•to  assemble  all  the  tools  necessary  for  the  successful  conduct 
.of  the  recitation.  Without  such  systematic  preparation,  the 
teacher's  work  is  apt  to  be  unsatisfactory. 

3.  The  class-room.  The  following  matters  connected 
with  the  class-room  need  careful  attention:  Size,  ventila- 
tion, heating,  light,  seating,  conveniences,  inlet  and  exit, 
acoustics. 

A  small  room  where  the  pupils  are  cramped  for  space  is 
an  abomination ;  a  large  room  with  great  distances  and  un- 
used spaces  is  barn-like.  Assuming  the  number  in  the  class 
to  be  thirty,  a  room  devoted  to  class  recitation  should  have 
from  9,000  to  12,000  cubic  feet  of  space.  An  extremely 
high  ceiling  is  not  desirable;  fifteen  feet  is  high  enough. 
Such  a  room  would  have  from  600  to  800  square  feet  of 
floor  space.  This  means  a  room  approximately  24x25  or 
25x32.  These  dimensions  may  be  regarded  as  the  mini- 
mum and  maximum.  A  shop-room  for  manual  training  of 
this  size  would  accommodate  about  sixteen  pupils  at  benches. 
A  gymnasium  for  forty  pupils  should  have  floor  space  of  at 
least  2,160  square  feet.  A  cooking  room  for  twenty  girls 
should  contain  at  least  800  square  feet  of  floor.  A  sewing 
room  should  be  the  size  of  a  manual  training  shop.  A  class- 
room suited  for  laboratory  demonstration  or  experiment 
should  contain  approximately  200  square  feet  of  floor  space 
more  than  the  specification  for  classes. 

Ventilation  may  be  by  forced  circulation  of  air,  driven  by 
fans  through  air  shafts.  In  such  a  case  the  in-take  should 
be  located  where  the  air  from  outdoors  may  be  secured  in 
purity;  should  then  be  passed  through  a  spray  wash; 
heated ;  and  driven  by  fans  to  the  various  rooms  in  sufficient 
volume  completely  to  change  the  air  of  a  room  every  fifteen 


136  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

minutes.  The  air  currents  should  be  tested  and  measured 
frequently  so  as  to  be  sure  that  the  ventilation  is  perfect. 
The  bad  air  is  forced  by  the  pressure  of  in-coming  air  to 
pass  out  through  a  shaft  rising  to  the  top  of  the  building. 
To  facilitate  this  rise,  the  bad-air  shaft  may  run  up  through 
a  larger  shaft  in  whose  outer  chamber  passes  the  hot  smoke 
or  fumes  from  the  furnace. 

The  heating  of  a  room  'may  most  properly  be  done  by  the 
system  described  in  the  preceding  paragraph.  The  washed 
air  is  heated  by  passing  over  a  furnace-heated  surface,  or 
in  a  chamber-oven.  The  heating  of  air  has  a  tendency  to 
dry  it ;  but  the  air  is  saturated  with  moisture  when  it  passes 
through  the  spray  wash.  There  are  many  other  heating  de- 
vices— steam,  hot-water,  gas-radiators,  and  electric  radia- 
tors. They  are  said  to  be  very  satisfactory. 

The  lighting  of  a  room  is  from  windows,  from  sky-lights, 
fromi  electric  lamps,  or  from  concealed  lights.  While  the 
last  is  best  for  the  eyes,  it  is  probably  impracticable  for 
school  lighting.  Sky-lights  should  be  used  as  the  last  resort. 
The  lighting  from  windows  must  be  carefully  controlled. 
The  windows  should  be  placed  all  on  one  side  of  the  room 
and  at  the  pupils'  left.  It  is  better  if  no  window  is  farther 
forward  than  the  front  pupils'  desks.  Cross-lights  are  to  be 
absolutely  prevented,  also  lights  that  the  children  have  to 
face.  Glaring  lights  are  bad  not  only  for  the  eyes  of  chil- 
dren but  also  for  the  health  of  all  white  people.  Dark  green, 
brown,  or  yellow  shades  are  best,  depending  somewhat  upon 
the  amount  of  light  needed. 

The  seating  is  of  considerable  importance.  If  stationary 
desks  are  used,  they  should  be  adjustable  so  that  each  pupil 
may  have  his  desk  and  seat  at  the  proper  height  for  him. 
The  seats  should  be  arranged  in  rows  the  long-way  of  the 
room.  There  should  be  considerable  distance — at  least  seven 


TEACHING  IN  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  137 

feet — between  the  front  desks  and  the  front  wall  of  the 
room.  Better  still,  however,  are  the  movable  desks,  that 
may  be  grouped  in  any  way  to  serve  the  purpose  of  the  reci- 
tation. They  may  be  grouped  close  about  the  teacher's  desk, 
or  turned  so  as  to  give  opportunity  to  see  a  demonstration 
at  any  part  of  the  blackboard.  They  may  even  be  removed 
from  the  room,  giving  space  for  physical  culture,  play, 
laboratory  exercises,  or  other  work. 

The  acoustic  properties  of  a  class-room  must  be  carefully 
adjusted.  Nothing  is  so  conducive  to  disorder,  misunder- 
standing, and  downright  distress  as  poor  acoustics.  It  should 
be  that  every  child  in  the  class-room  may  hear  every  word 
of  the  other  pupils  and  of  the  teacher  without  the  least 
straining.  Of  course,  nothing  can  take  the  place  of  alert 
attention  and  interest.  But  a  pupil  cannot  be  expected  to 
give  close  attention  when  he  cannot  hear  well  what  is  said. 
If  the  acoustics  are  now  poor  in  the  class-room,  padding 
the  walls  or  stretching  wires  from  front  to  back  of  room 
will  help  matters.  The  teacher  will  do  well  to  study  his 
class-room,  test  the  acoustics,  and,  if  anything  wrong  is 
found,  study  the  principles  of  the  subject  and  apply  the 
remedies. 

Every  recitation  room,  gymnasium,  and  study-room 
should  be  provided  with  conveniences  suitable  to  the  sub- 
jects taught.  Shelves  for  books,  cases  for  supplies,  black- 
boards, globes,  electric  lights,  wall-maps,  suitable  floors, 
closets,  dictionary  racks,  teacher's  desk,  filing  cases  for 
papers,  cards.  If  the  room  is  not  already  provided  with  these 
and  other  necessary  conveniences,  the  teacher  should  see  to 
it  that  they  are  secured  or  make  them  himself.  The  teacher 
as  well  as  the  school  will  be  judged  by  the  business-like 
arrangement  of  the  class-room.  The  very  appearance  of  the 


138  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

room  will  be  an  important  factor  in  the  pupil's  attitude 
toward  the  teacher  and  his  own  work. 

Finally,  a  word  should  be  said  about  the  entrance-way  into 
the  room  and  the  means  of  egress  from  the  room.  Each 
class-room  should  have  two  doors  for  convenience  as  well 
as  for  safety.  Pupils  should  enter  by  one  door  and  leave 
the  room  by  the  other.  That  door  is  best,  however,  that 
swings  both  in  and  out.  The  doors  should  have  automatic, 
noiseless  closing  devices.  The  doors  should  be  kept  locked 
when  the  teacher  is  put  of  the  room ;  but  a  slit  in  the  door 
for  depositing  papers,  like  a  letter  box,  should  be  provided. 
The  glass  in  doors  should  not  be  so  transparent  that  per- 
sons walking  in  the  halls  will  attract  the  attention  of  the 
class  in  the  room. 

It  would  be  well  if  every  teacher  could  be  provided  with 
a  private  study  or  consultation  room  adjoining  his  class- 
room. Such  an  office  would  give  him  privacy,  and  would 
permit  pupils  to  consult  with  a  teacher  without  attracting 
attention  or  disturbing  others.  Such  an  office  would  per- 
mit the  teacher  to  work  in  the  building  after  recitation  hours 
when  the  janitor  is  sweeping  his  class-room. 

4.  High  school  textbooks  not  adapted  to  junior  high 
school.  Although  a  subject  formerly  pursued  in  the  ninth 
grade  may  be  more  profitably  placed  in  the  seventh  grade, 
it  is  true  that  the  same  textbook  cannot  to  best  advantage 
be  used.  As  a  matter  of  fact  there  is  a  maturing  of  mind 
and  body  that  goes  on  with  increase  of  age  irrespective  of 
the  training  they  get  in  or  out  of  school.  This  fact  is  all 
important  when  we  come  to  consider  the  books  through 
which  we  expect  to  teach  the  various  subjects  The  last  few 
years  have  seen  an  appreciation  of  this  fact  in  the  large  out- 
put of  books  adapted  to  small  children  from  adult  originals. 
Take  the  fairly  complete  story  of  Robinson  Crusoe  now 


TEACHING  IN  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  139 

written  for  boys  of  eight  years  of  age.  The  original  is  hard 
reading  for  a  mature  mind ;  it  was  impossible  to  the  young- 
ster who  would  appreciate  it  most.  Dozens  of  stories  have 
recently  been  rendered  into  child  language  to  the  enrich- 
ment of  our  children's  minds,  to  their  enjoyment,  and,  inci- 
dentally, to  the  financial  profit  of  the  editor  that  did  the 
rewriting. 

On  the  other  hand  there  are  many  textbooks  and  classics 
used  in  high  school  that  are  too  simple  to  exercise  properly 
the  mental  powers  of  such  mature  boys  and  girls.  We  all 
know  of  several  that  have  actually  been  finding  their  way 
down  the  grades  toward  the  place  where  they  belong.  We 
have  in  mind  such  classics  as  Gulliver's  Travels,  Snow 
Bound,  and  Last  of  the  Mohicans.  These  were  formerly 
taught  in  the  tenth  grade,  and  then  found  their  way  into 
the  ninth.  They  were  gradually  dropped  from  first  one, 
then  another  high  school  curriculum,  only  to  bob  up  in  the 
eighth  grade.  They  are  now  beginning  to  find  a  place  in  the 
first  year  of  the  intermediate  school.  WTe  know  of  one 
beginner's  Latin  text,  one  English  composition  book,  one 
textbooks  in  economics,  and  one  in  general  science  that  were 
written  for  certain  grades  in  the  high  school.  They  have 
all  been  dropped  down  a  grade  or  two,  or  have  been  dis- 
carded as  too  immature.  In  history  this  is  almost  univer- 
sally true  of  high  school  textbooks  on  American  history. 

Sometimes  authors  have  over-shot  the  mark.  This  has 
been  especially  true  of  college  professors  who  have  written 
textbooks  for  high  school.  One  could  almost  wish  that 
there  could  be  a  law  compelling  college  professors  to  teach 
their  books  to  the  classes  for  which  the  books  are  intended 
by  their  authors.  Rare  is  that  university  teacher,  who, 
never  having  taught  ninth  grade  pupils,  can  yet  write  a 


I4O  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

textbook    fitted  to  the  comprehension  of  young  people  of 
that  age. 

It  is  not  sufficient  that  the  language  of  textbooks  now  in 
use  be  simplified  for  the  junior  high  schools.  Simple  lan- 
guage, simple  style,  yes — but  these  new  books  must  be  writ- 
ten from  a  different  angle  with  an  entirely  different  concep- 
tion. Again  we  must  apply  the  standard  of  educating  the 
boy  and  the  girl,  not  diffusing  knowledge  through  the  world. 
Let  us  illustrate : 

We  have  before  us  a  new  textbook  on  ancient  history — 
one  of  the  least  offensive,  so  we  were  told  by  the  agent.  In 
the  few  pages  devoted  to  Greece,  we  find  the  names  of 
ninety-one  men  and  women.  The  time  to  be  devoted  to 
4he  subject  of  Greece  is  intended  to  be  about  thirty  lessons. 
On  an  average  three  new  persons  appear  each  day  in  the 
study  as  it  proceeds.  Here  are  a  few  of  the  persons  whose 
names  are  mentioned  and  whose  deeds  are  described :  Cimon, 
Alcibiades,  Gylippus,  Pelopidas,  Epaminondes,  Aratus, 
Zeuxis,  Parrhasius,  Thales,  Zeno,  and  Hippocrates.  There 
are  many  others  whose  names  might  profitably  be  omitted. 
Many  school  boys  for  the  excitement  of  the  game  would  try 
to  retain  every  name  and  every  deed.  Their  memories 
might  be  stored  with  more  profitable  information.  These 
are  husks  that  inflate,  but  do  not  develop,  the  mental  powers 
of  youth. 

Not  only  must  the  child  to  be  trained  occupy  the  center  of 
the  stage,  but  it  is  the  early  adolescent  child  who  is  begin- 
ning to  develop  an  ego,  who  is  beginning  to  feel  that  he  has 
a  big  purpose  in  living,  who  is  restless  to  try  his  strength 
on  something  worth  while,  whose  emotions  are  sensitive  to 
the  appeal  of  heroic  lives  'that  have  affected  the  progress  of 
the  world.  The  right  kind  of  history  and  literature  would 
book  big  in  the  life  of  the  adolescent  boy  or  girl.  But  facts 


TEACHING  IN  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  141 

are  not  the  things  wanted.  They  want  episodes  with  strong 
coloring  and  of  great  consequence.  There  must  be  a  hero 
to  give  reality  to  it  all. 

Then  there  are  textbooks  on  science,  pure  and  applied. 
At  this  age  it  had  better  be  reversed.  There  are  a  thousand 
things  that  are  beginning  to  have  a  new  interest  to  the 
pupils.  Curiosity  is  strong.  Let  science  reveal  to  them  the 
relationship  of  man  to  nature  and  to  the  race ;  the  relation- 
ship of  nature  to  man  and  to  the  race.  The  so-called  prac- 
tical things  will  appeal  strongly  to  the  early  adolescent.  In 
the  abstract  he  cares  little  for  the  winds  and  wind  currents. 
But  wind  currents  that  affect  the  crops,  that  affect  the  con- 
struction of  buildings,  that  affect  the  location  of  sea-ports, 
irrigation  dams,  and  sailing-vessel  routes — such  wind  cur- 
rents will  make  a  strong  appeal  to  him.  Let  him  proceed 
from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract,  from  the  effect  to  the 
cause.  This  is  the  point  of  view  text  writers  must  have  in 
writing  textbooks. 

Algebra  and  geometry  must  be  justified  to  the  adolescent 
boy  or  girl  from  another  standpoint.  In  the  first  place  these 
courses  use  symbolic  language,  and  adolescents  are  fond  of 
secret  signs.  In  the  second  place,  these  branches  of  mathe- 
matics give  promise  of  new,  direct  and  easier  ways  of  solv- 
ing problems.  This  side  of  the  subject  must  be  made  much 
of.  They  are  practical  subjects  for  the  mechanic,  draughts- 
man, engineer,  architect,  artist,  chemist,  electrician.  Text- 
books must  not  fail  to  appeal  to  the  adolescent's  growing 
demand  for  real  life ;  and  yet  they  can  and  should  make  an 
appeal  to  the  game  and  puzzle  interests  of  youth. 

5.      Certain  qualities  to  be  developed  in  pupils. 

A.  Acquisition  of  habits  of  industry.  This  purpose  of 
teaching  is  realizable  through  every  subject,  but  its  success 
depends  very  much  upon  the  teacher.  A  fine  habit  to  acquire 


I42  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH   SCHOOL 

is  one  of  working  with  full  steam  ahead  when  working,  and 
playing  hard  when  playing.  The  teacher  will  do  well  to  ob- 
serve the  following  points  in  teaching  pupils  to  be  indus- 
trious :  The  teacher  must  be  a  fine  example  of  industrious- 
ness  himself;  there  must  be  a  regular,  fixed  time  for  the 
pupil's  reciting  and  studying;  a  definite  assignment  of  a 
lesson  must  be  made  so  that  the  pupil  will  waste  no  time  in 
getting  to  work ;  a  limited  time  should  be  allowed  the  pupil 
for  doing  a  task ;  the  pupil  should  be  taught  how  to  study 
and  work  so  as  to  save  time ;  the  pupil  should  be  compelled 
to  work  when  he  does  not  feel  like  it,  for  the  feeling  of 
laziness  will  soon  pass  away  and  be  forgotten,  but  habit  of 
resisting  one's  lazy  impulses  will  remain  as  an  abiding  bless- 
ing; pupils  should  be  required  to  carry  through  a  program 
once  undertaken.  If  a  pupil  be  permitted  to  follow  his  own 
whim,  work  when  the  spirit  moves  him,  procrastinate,  dissi- 
pate his  energies,  mope  over  his  tasks,  he  will  soon  be 
"beyond  easy  redemption. 

B.  The  development  of  sense  perception  is  best  secured 
through  music,   art,   manual   training,   sewing,   craft-work, 
typing,  and  mensuration.     In  these    subjects    great    stress 
should  be  placed  upon  keenness,  accuracy,  and  swiftness  of 
feeling,  hearing,  seeing,  measuring.    The  teacher  will  begin 
with  crude  material  and  proceed  in  all  three  of  the  above 
lines  toward  greater  and  greater  proficiency.     Daily  exer- 
cises must  be  provided  and  practice  constantly  insisted  upon. 
The  teacher  must  have  as  an  ideal  a  degree  of  perfection 
far  beyond  what  has  been  attained  up  to  the  present  time. 

C.  Acquisition   of  motor  skill  is  secured  best  through 
physical   culture,   manual  training,    printing,    penmanship, 
shorthand,  instrumental  music,  mechanical  drawing,  sewing, 
typing,  and  craft-work.    The  aim  here  is  to  secure  accuracy, 
swiftness,  delicacy,  dexterity,  power,  and  endurance.    Here, 


TEACHING   IN    JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL  143 

likewise,  it  may  be  said  that  the  past  records  must  be  broken 
and  the  unbelievable  attained.  The  rank  and  file  must  be 
raised  beyond  mediocrity,  must  in  fact  press  close  upon  the 
heels  of  the  specially  gifted. 

D.  Health  and  development  belong  principally  in  the  field 
of  physical  culture,  athletics,  physiology,  domestic  science, 
domestic  art,  sanitation,  vocal  music,   folk-dancing,   public 
speaking,  theatricals,  military  training,  dietetics.    Corrective 
measures  should  be  prominent  in  physical  culture,  as  well  as 
further  development  of  the  already  healthy  body.    Athletics 
promote  health,  strength,  and  physical  perfection,  as  well  as 
physical  courage  and  control.     Domestic  science  works  out 
a  healthful  diet  and  reveals  the  evils    of    a    wrong    diet. 
Domestic  art  gives  the  girls  an  ability  to  dress  themselves 
becomingly  without  resorting  to  such  evil  practices  as  tight 
lacing  and  pinching  of  the  feet  with  too  small  shoes.    Vocal 
music  develops  the  lungs  and  throat,  gives  correct  breathing. 
Public  speaking  and  theatricals  promote  correct  posture  and 
grace. 

E.  Acquisition   of  information  of  a   usable   sort   comes 
through  a  study  of  vocational,  civic  and  cultural  branches  of 
learning.     In  the  past  culture  was  stressed ;  now  civic  infor- 
mation is  coming  into  its  own.     Vocational  knowledge  has 
broadened  from  the  professions  to  include  practically  every 
honorable   occupation.     The   information   of   every   subject 
should  be  worth  while  if  it  is  to  be  continued  in  the  curri- 
culum); but  for  each  pupil  there  is  a  field  of  knowledge  most 
worth   while.      The   well-educated   student,   we   say,   should 
have  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  world  in  general  and 
of  our  own  country  in  particular  so  that  he  will  understand 
the  present  and  profit  by  the  experiences  of  those  who  have 
gone  before.     He  should  understand  the  institutions  under 
which  he  lives  and  must  work  out  his  place  in  the  universe. 


144  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

He  must  know  the  necessary  facts  and  principles  connected 
with  his  probable  future  vocation,  and  should  know  consid- 
erable of  the  contributory  facts  as  well  as  related  vocations. 
He  should  understand  the  general  principles  of  the  scientific 
and  material  world  about  him — physical,  chemical,  biologi- 
cal, mechanical.  He  ought  to  learn  to  appreciate  the  beauties 
of  nature  and  art — music,  art,  literature,  drama,  and  to  be 
familiar  with  the  great  masterpieces. 

F.  In  discussing  the  development  of  the  faculties  of 
reasoning,  retentiveness,  alertness,  and  quickness  of  percep- 
tion, we  realize  that  we  are  on  dangerous  ground.  We 
shall,  therefore,  not  enter  into  the  controversy  concerning 
formal  discipline,  but  shall  assume  that  the  question  has  not 
yet  been  proven  against  the  possibility  of  developing  the 
faculties  of  the  mind.  For  the  reasoning  power,  then,  there 
are  no  better  subjects  than  algebra  and  geometry.  We  must 
not  rely  upon  these  two  subjects  entirely,  but  should  include 
exposition  and  argument  in  composition,  grammar,  economic 
problems,  debate,  and  problems  in  science  and  mechanics. 
For  retentiveness,  we  may  use  all  the  subjects  to  advantage, 
but  in  particular  the  memorizing  of  poetic  and  prose  selec- 
tions, the  exact  wording  of  geometric  propositions,  formu- 
lae in  mathematics,  meaning  of  words  in  language,  and  the 
converse — that  is,  the  word  for  a  certain  meaning — spelling, 
mathematical  tables,  symbols  in  chemistry,  laws  and  rules 
in  all  subjects.  Drill  in  alertness  should  accomjpany  all 
branches,  but 'must  especially  be  developed  by  the  mathe- 
matics and  language  teachers.  Quickness  of  perception  is 
closely  related  to  alertness,  and  is  the  opposite  of  sluggish- 
ness, dullness,  sloth.  Teachers  must  keep  always  in  mind 
the  development  of  this  faculty  by  practice  and  drill,  never 
by  exhortation  and  nagging. 


TEACHING   IN    JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL  145 

G.  Skill  in  expression  is  especially  within  the  field  of 
English  and  its  related  subjects,  debate,  oratory,  explana- 
tion of  the  solution  of  problems,  economic  and  historical 
discussion.  Oral  and  written  composition  deal  constantly 
with  this  problem ;  and,  although  the  ability  to  think  may  be 
placed  first  in  the  aims  of  a  composition  course,  certainly 
skill  in  expression  is  the  other  great  aim.  The  importance 
of  this  acquisition  cannot  be  too  much  insisted  upon.  The 
teacher  must  constantly  keep  it  in  mind.  We  do  not  mean 
that  he  should  interrupt  the  pupil's  talk  to  make  corrections, 
for  the  teacher  will  use  a  more  tactful  device  than  that.  The 
pupil  must  be  taught  to  turn  his  own  mind  in  upon  his  own 
language  before  he  can  acquire  ability  to  express  himself 
well.  He  may  be  awkward  at  first,  but  speaking  effectively 
will  soon  become  a  habit  and  will  not  require  close  attention. 

H.  The  development  in  the  pupils  of  a  liking  for  clean 
wholesome  pleasures  is  especially  the  duty  of  teachers  in  the 
junior  high  schools.  It  is  the  age  for  forming  tastes.  Hence 
culture  subjects  should  book  large  at  this  time,  providing 
that  we  do  not  aim  too  high  and  thus  miss  the  mark. 
Through  physical  education  may  be  developed  the  love  for 
physical  sports  and  athletic  games.  In  manual  training 
should  be  aroused  a  pleasure  in  making  things  with  the 
hands.  In  English,  a  love  for  reading  good  literature;  in 
art,  for  looking  at  paintings,  statuary,  architecture,  scenery,, 
landscape ;  in  music,  for  hearing  music  of  the  better  class ; 
in  foreign  languages,  for  reading  and  conversing  in  an  alien 
tongue ;  in  history,  for  following  the  great,  stirring  deeds 
of  the  heroes  of  nations ;  in  science,  for  collecting  specimens 
and  making  experiments. 

I.  Purposefulness  of  life.  The  last  aim  of  teaching  to 
be  discussed  is  one  that  affects  deeply  the  lives  of  all  boys 
and  girls  of  the  adolescent  period.  Why  do  I  live?  For 


146  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

my  own  pleasure  or  for  a  greater  purpose?  Are  the  two 
ideas  antagonistic  or  complementary?  What  can  I  do  now 
to  accomplish  these  purposes?  How  shall  I  prepare  for 
carrying  out  the  great  plan?  What  effect  will  my  present 
daily  life  have  upon  it?  What  effect  will  industry,  self- 
denial,  good  habits  have  upon  it?  What  effect  will  over- 
indulgence, bad  habits,  and  vice  have  upon  it?  Is  it  a  fact 
that  everything  I  do  or  think  now  has  its  effect  which  will 
appear  later?  If  so,  does  it  not  behoove  me  to  consider  well 
what  I  do,  not  solely  with  the  thought  of  its  present  effect 
but  also  of  its  future  effect  ?  Every  thought  and  every  deed 
should  be  purposeful.  The  pupil  should  decide  what  effect 
he  wants  to  produce  and  then  go  about  doing  the  things  that 
will  bring  that  result  about. 

6.  The  method  of  the  recitation  period.  We  have 
used  the  expression  "recitation  period"  because  it  is  a  term 
widely  understood,  and  not  because  we  believe  that  in  any 
sense  it  should  be  a  recitation  to  the  teacher,  of  facts  learned 
by  the  pupil  in  private  study  of  an  assigned  lesson.  On  the 
contrary,  we  regard  the  period  as  a  space  of  time  allotted 
in  the  program  to  the  concentrated  study  of  some  particular 
subject.  The  teacher  is  to  teach  through  the  medium  of  a 
certain  subject,  habits  of  industry,  motor  skill,  health  and 
development,  usable  information,  reasoning,  retentiveness, 
alertness,  quickness  of  perception,  skill  in  expression,  a  lik- 
ing for  wholesome  pleasures,  or  life  purposes,  or  a  combina- 
tion of  several  or  all  of  these  things.  We  shall  draw  no 
clearly  defined  line  between  the  study  part  of  the  period  and 
the  so-called  recitation  part.  In  fact,  the  whole  period  must 
be  regarded  as  a  study  period  in  which  the  pupil  is  making 
progress  every  minute  toward  the  working  out  of  some 
problem. 


TEACHING  IN  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  147 

It  may  be  accepted  as  a  truism  that  a  pupil  will  attack  with 
greatest  avidity,  and  will  get  most  out  of,  that  in  which  he 
has  the  largest  interest.  It  follows  that  the  first  business 
of  the  teacher  is  to  arouse  the  pupil's  interest  in  the  problem 
or  subject.  Attention  both  precedes  and  follows  interest; 
but  the  first  attention  may  in  some  cases  be  compelled  atten- 
tion, although  in  many  instances  it  is  aroused  attention.  A 
globe  on  the  teacher's  desk,  apparatus  on  a  demonstration 
table,  a  few  notes  sung  by  the  teacher,  the  explosion  of  a 
chemical  gas — all  serve  to  attract  the  attention  and  arouse 
the  interest  of  the  class.  The  period's  problem  is  then  pre- 
sented by  the  teacher  or  thought  out  by  the  pupils.  There 
is  the  excitement  of  a  game  as  the  problem  gradually  unfolds 
itself  to  the  pupil  and  he  begins  to  see  clearly  what  he  has 
to  do.  One  of  the  necessities  of  careful  preparation  by  the 
teacher  lies  in  the  laying  out  of  a  definite  problem  for  his 
pupils.  The  solving  of  this  problem  is  the  work  of  the  "reci- 
tation period."  There  should  be  no  more  literal  recitation 
than  is  absolutely  necessary — just  enough  for  the  teacher  to 
make  sure  that  the  pupils  all  do  and  understand  the  work. 

Viewed  in  this  sense  the  whole  period  may  be  one  of 
supervised  study.  Many  of  the  pupils  will  do  the  work 
without  much  direct  supervision.  Others  will  need  the  close 
supervision  of  the  teacher,  who  may  need  to  watch  the 
pupil's  solution  of  the  problem  step  by  step.  Ten  or  fifteen 
out  of  a  group  of  twenty-five  may  need  to  have  the  teacher 
accompany  them  paragraph  by  paragraph  through  a  history 
lesson,  help  them  look  up  all  the  references,  and  see  that  they 
get  the  real  point  out  of  each  reference.  The  wise  teacher 
will  avoid  interfering  with  the  pupil  who  works  well  by  him- 
self. Such  pupils  may  work  in  the  library  or  elsewhere  dur- 
ing part  of  the  period,  coming  to  the  class-room  for  a  sum- 
ming up  of  their  gleanings.  This  kind  of  school-work  may 


148  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

be  regarded  as  self-propelled  education  and  is  highly  desir- 
able. The  object  of  the  supervised  study  should  be  to  pro- 
duce self-propelling  students  out  of  all  the  pupils.  This 
method  does  not  imply  that  certain  students  shall  go  faster 
than  others ;  it  will,  however,  result  in  some  students  putting 
far  less  time  upon  certain  subjects  than  other  students  will 
have  to  do. 

This  method  of  teaching  is  more  analogous  to  the  labora- 
tory method  than  to  the  recitation.  We  are  all  familiar  with 
the  laboratory  method  as  applied  to  the  sciences  and  with  its 
counterparts,  the  library  method  as  applied  to  history,  the 
shop  method  as  applied  to  manual  arts,  and  the  gymnasium 
or  playground  method  as  applied  to  physical  education 
courses.  Supervised  study  would  not  interfere  with  these 
plans  and  methods:  it  would  apply  many  of  the  principles 
of  the  laboratory  method  to  other  subjects,  such  as  English, 
mathematics,  the  languages,  and  the  vocations.  Teachers 
sometimes  object  to  it  as  requiring  more  preparation  and 
planning  on  their  part.  This  seems  to  us  to  be  an  argument 
in  its  favor. 

The  introduction  of  supervised  study  will  not  eliminate 
the  review  recitation  altogether.  It  is  highly  desirable  that 
the  class  be  got  together  two  or  three  days  each  week  for  a 
conversational  review  of  the  work  covered.  The  question 
and  answer  method  may  prevail  at  these  meetings,  but  the 
pupil  should  be  encouraged  to  ask  the  teacher  questions  also. 
Such  questions  mlay  be  jotted  down  and  handed  to  the  in- 
structor before  the  review  recitation  begins.  While  con- 
versational reviews  are  essential  and  experienced  teachers 
are  expert  in  the  management  of  them,  the  principal  should 
insist  that  they  be  not  engaged  in  too  frequently. 

Finally,  a  modified  lecture  recitation  should  be  used  occa- 
sionally in  all  subjects.  It  may  be  presumed  that  the  teacher 


TEACHING  IN  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  149 

has  had  wide  experience  and  that  it  would  be  to  the  benefit 
of  his  pupils  if  he  would  tell  his  pupils  of  those  experiences. 
This  will  be  entertaining  as  well  as  instructive  and  will  draw 
teacher  and  pupils  close  to  each  other.  Possibly  the  teacher 
may  have  carried  on  careful  investigations  in  college  or  out- 
side, the  data  from  which  would  be  of  considerable  value  to 
his  pupils.  The  best  teacher  will  have  done  wide  reading, 
the  results  of  which  should  be  retold  to  those  who  study 
under  his  tutelage.  In  many  cases  the  teacher  may  secure 
outsiders  to  come  in  and  talk  to  his  classes  along  certain 
lines.  Care  must  be  exercised  that  the  right  persons  are 
chosen  and  that  the  matter  is  presented  in  a  clear  and  inter- 
esting way.  This  supplementary  information  drawn  from 
the  teacher's  experiences  or  from  outsiders  is  well  worth 
while  for  the  education  of  the  young  people.  It  correlates 
school  with  life,  and  serves  to  stimulate  and  inspire  boys 
and  girls  at  an  age  when  they  are  in  greatest  need  of  stimu- 
lation and  inspiration. 


CHAPTER  NINE 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH 
SCHOOL 

1.  The  faculty.  We  wish  to  discuss  the  subject  of  the 
administration  of  the  junior  high  school  not  so  much  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  city  superintendent  as  of  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  school  and  those  who  aid  him.  We  may  in  this 
chapter  consider  that  we  have  a  school  of  three  hundred  to 
six  or  seven  hundred  pupils  and  from  fourteen  to  twenty- 
five  teachers.  With  such  a  school  and  a  faculty  already 
appointed  and  assigned  to  his  building,  the  principal  has 
certain  problems  demanding  solution. 

It  is  not  conceivable  that  he  undertake  all  the  details  of 
administration.  He  must  delegate  powers  and  duties  to 
teachers,  janitors,  and  pupils ;  and  the  most  successful  prin- 
cipal is  he  who  can  delegate  most  functions  while  he  main- 
tains control  and  supervision  over  all.  In  delegating  these 
functions  he  must  use  great  wisdom  in  selecting  the  persons 
to  do  the  work.  They  become  his  authorized  agents ;  if  they 
fail,  he  is,  and  should  be,  held  responsible. 

The  largest  working  body — as  agent  of  the  principal — 
is  the  faculty.  This  does  not  need  any  formal  organization. 
All  the  teachers  of  the  school  are  per  se  memibers  of  the 
faculty.  The  faculty  holds  meetings  only  upon  the  call  of 
the  principal,  either  at  regular  intervals  or  when  necessity 
arises.  The  principal  acts  as  chairman  of  the  faculty  meet- 
ing. Where  many  questions  are  to  be  discussed,  it  is  some- 
times advisable  to  have  a  recording  secretary,  perhaps  the 
principal's  stenographer.  The  principal  delegates  to  the 
faculty  as  many  matters  as  he  deems  wise.  If  he  feels  that 
the  judgment  of  the  faculty  is  good,  is  better  than  his  own 


ADMINISTRATION  151 

acting  alone,  he  will  do  well  to  ask  the  teachers  to  pass  upon 
many  questions  of  importance.  If  the  faculty  lacks  good 
judgment,  is  prejudiced,  or  is  divided,  it  were  better  for  the 
principal  not  to  refer  important  matters  to  it.  Through 
these  meetings  the  principal  communicates  to  the  faculty  his 
plans  of  organization,  his  ideas  on  educational  policy,  and 
instructions  that  come  from  the  superintendent.  It  is  best 
not  to  burden  a  faculty  with  too  many  questions  for  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  each  teacher  has  his  own  teaching 
work  to  do  and  plans  to  make. 

Some  principals  find  it  worth  while  to  divide  the  faculty 
work  among  committees  of  the  faculty.  He  appoints  these 
committees  and  outlines  the  work  desired.  The  author, 
when  principal  of  a  secondary  school,  appointed  faculty  com- 
mittees on  codification  of  rules  and  customs  of  the  school, 
on  preparation  of  plans  for  student  self-government,  on  cur- 
rent educational  progress,  on  discipline,  etc.  These  com- 
mittees made  their  reports  and  recommendations  to  the 
principal,  who  adopted  them,  rejected  them,  or  referred 
them  to  the  faculty  as  a  whole.  Valuable  information  is 
gathered  in  this  way,  and  unity  of  action  is  secured. 

It  is  well  to  assign  to  the  various  teachers  duty  as  regis- 
tration officers,  or  as  class  advisers.  The  principal  will  soon 
learn  which  of  his  teachers  are  adapted  to  this  kind  of  work. 
A  registration  teacher  needs  to  be  exact,  methodical,  firm, 
a  good  judge  of  child  nature,  and  active.  A  class  adviser 
must  be  in  sympathy  with  young  life,  must  appreciate  its 
pleasures  and  troubles,  must  be  a  good  organizer,  and  must 
have  a  winning  personality.  Such  teachers  are  even  closer 
to  the  pupil  than  is  the  principal.  For  class  advisers,  the 
principal  should  pick  those  teachers  who  are  closest  to  him, 
understand  his  ideals  and  policies,  and  are  ardent  advocates 
of  them. 


152  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

The  principal  will  find  it  convenient  and  effective  to  assign 
to  each  teacher  some  collateral  duty.  It  may  be  as  coach 
of  boys'  or  girls'  athletics,  coach  of  debate,  leader  of  orches- 
tras or  of  bands,  cross-country  chaperon,  auditor  of  stu- 
dent-organization accounts,  coach  of  the  school  plays,  faculty 
member  of  the  staff  of  the  school  newspaper,  etc.  Teachers 
should  be  chosen  for  their  fitness  for  the  work;  but  some- 
times teachers  should  be  appointed  to  certain  tasks  in  order 
to  develop  the  teacher.  One  of  the  tasks  laid  upon  the  prin- 
cipal is  that  he  make  excellent  teachers  out  of  those  assigned 
to  his  building.  He  must  bear  this  in  mind. 

2.  Supervision.  In  a  previous  chapter  the  author 
attempted  to  make  clear  the  undesirability  of  having  heads 
of  departments  in  the  junior  high  school,  especially  as  the 
ideal  school  is  one  requiring  not  more  than  twenty-five 
teachers.  Mention  was  also  made  of  the  danger  of  having 
the  senior  high  school  heads  supervise  and  control  the  work 
of  the  lower  high  school.  It  follows  that  in  small  communi- 
ties having  not  more  than  two  or  three  such  schools,  the 
superintendent  should  supervise  directly  the  departmental 
work  of  the  junior  high  school  or  delegate  part  of  such 
duties  to  principals.  In  cities  having  more  than  three  such 
schools,  there  should  be  a  supervisor  of  subjects  or  several 
supervisors  of  subjects.  These  supervisors  are  to  attend  to 
the  matter  to  be  taught,  its  kind,  quality,  and  amount;  the 
providing  of  the  proper  supplies,  equipment,  and  acces- 
sories ;  the  best  methods  of  teaching  the  subjects ;  the  mak- 
ing of  the  curricula ;  the  proper  articulation  with  the  courses 
of  the  grades  below  and  above  the  junior  high  school.  The 
supervisors  are  to  work  in  harmony  with  the  principals  of 
the  intermediate  schools,  are  in  fact  advisory  aides  to  the 
principals,  and  should  stand  to  the  principals  and  teachers 
in  the  same  relation  as  heads  of  departments.  The  superin- 


ADMINISTRATION  1 53 

tendent  when  acting  as  supervisor  has  the  same  duties,  but 
he  is  also  the  administrator  of  all  the  schools  and  occupies  a 
dual  headship.  The  supervisor  does  not  take  over  the  whole 
authority  of  the  superintendent:  he  merely  acts  for  the 
superintendent  in  the  restricted  field  described  above. 

There  are  other  officers  in  the  city  who  exercise  wider 
authority  than  one  school,  but  their  functions  are  also  limited 
to  one  or  two  particular  fields  each.  The  director  of  the 
bureau  of  vocational  guidance  within  a  restricted  area  of 
activity  is  a  supervisor.  The  vocational  adviser  exacts  re- 
ports from  the  teachers,  plans  vocational  stimulation,  brings 
in  outside  speakers,  arranges  trips  to  industrial  institutions, 
and  himself  teaches  a  class  in  vocational  information  and 
guidance.  He  makes  himself  useful  to  the  principals  of  the 
various  secondary  institutions  by  making  out  the  curricula 
for  the  pupils  and  by  interviewing  pupils  who  are  desirous 
of  leaving  school,  in  order  to  hold  them  in  school  for  their 
own  good. 

Then  there  is  the  bureau  of  compulsory  attendance  that 
touches  the  life  of  each  school,  the  pupils  and  the  teachers. 
This,  too,  occupies  a  restricted  field  and  performs  such  work 
as  is  delegated  to  it  by  the  superintendent.  Within  this 
bureau  are  the  chief  of  the  bureau,  examining  physicians, 
nurses,  attendance  officers,  parental-school  teachers,  home 
teachers,  interpreters.  In  a  small  city  this  work  may  all  be 
entrusted  to  one  person.  In  any  case  it  touches  the  junior 
high  school  frequently,  as  it  is  during  the  age  covered  by 
this  school  that  the  compulsory  attendance  law  ceases  to 
operate.  Again,  it  may  be  noted  that  the  various  activities 
of  this  bureau  are  an  aid  to  the  principal  of  the  junior  high 
school,  and  should  be  so  regarded  by  him.  The  members  of 
this  bureau  should  also  endeavor  to  be  of  the  greatest  assist- 
ance to  the  principals. 


154  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

3.  Organization  of  the  schedule.  In  the  making  of  a 
schedule  nowadays  it  must  be  accepted  as  a  necessity  in  many 
cases  that  pupils  are  not  only  to  recite  every  lesson  at  school 
•but  also  prepare  every  lesson  at  school.  This  is  a  feature 
of  the  junior  high  school  and  raises  innumerable  problems. 
Of  course  this  does  not  mean  that  certain  home  reading  of 
good  literature  and  of  magazines  shall  not  be  required.  But 
the  regular  subjects  occupy  only  the  school  day.  This  prob- 
lem is  rendered  more  difficult  as  physical  education,  athletics, 
debating  society  work,  chorus  rehearsals,  etc.,  are  also  to  be 
done  at  school.  The  upshot  of  the  whole  matter  is  that  the 
school  day  must  be  greatly  lengthened  to  even  longer  hours 
than  existed  before  the  enthusiasm  for  short  and  shorter 
sessions  broke  out.  Many  progressive  schools  have  taken 
the  lead  and  are  now  holding  from  8.30  in  the  morning  to  5 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  with  one  hour  for  noon.  Kconomy 
in  space  and  teachers  has  even  made  it  necessary  to  have 
some  classes  going  on  during  the  noon  hour. 

Assuming  an  enrollment  of  400  pupils,  and  classes  averag- 
ing twenty-five  pupils  each,  and  each  pupil  carrying  five 
major  subjects,  we  have  a  school  with  80  recitations  per  day. 
Such  a  school  would  probably  have  16  teachers.  One  plan 
would  provide  for  eight  periods  of  sixty-three  minutes  each 
(the  three  minutes  for  passing,  leaving  sixty  minutes  in  the 
clear).  The  morning  session  would  begin  at  8.30,  and  the 
periods  end  as  follows:  (i)  at  9.33;  (2)  at  10.36;  (3)  at 
11.39;  (4)  at  12.42;  (5)  at  1.45;  (6)  at  2.48;  (7)  at  3.51; 
(8)  at  4.54.  Most  of  the  students  would  eat  lunch  during 
the  fourth  period;  many  would  try  to  reserve  the  seventh 
and  eighth  periods  for  athletics.  A  large  number  would 
prefer  to  have  the  first  period  for  study  only.  To  the  eighty 
recitations  mentioned  above  must  be  added  eight  study  hall 
periods,  making  a  total  of  eighty-eight  to  be  divided  among 


ADMINISTRATION  155 

sixteen  teachers,  an  average  of  fewer  than  six  recitations 
each.  Now,  if  we  assume  that  all  sixteen  teachers  would 
teach  during  the  second,  third,  fifth  and  sixth  periods,  we 
dispose  of  four  times  sixteen,  or  sixty-four,  class  recitations, 
four  of  which  would  be  study  hall  supervision.  In  this  way, 
only  twenty-four  recitations  and  study  hall  periods  would  'be 
left  to  be  disposed  of  during  the  first,  fourth,  seventh,  and 
eighth  periods.  It  may  be  readily  seen  that  the  schedule 
could  easily  be  arranged  so  as  to  have  the  first,  fourth,  sev- 
enth, and  eighth  periods  almost  entirely  for  study,  luncheon, 
recreation  and  physical  or  manual  culture,  respectively. 
Those  who  took  their  physical  culture  earlier  in  the  day 
would  be  assigned  regular  recitations  during  the  late  after- 
noon periods. 

This  program  provides  for  long  periods  and  no  recesses 
as  such.  It  does,  however,  assume  that  three  minutes  shall 
be  allowed  for  going  from  class  to  class  and  that  this  amount 
of  time  is  ample  for  providing  an  opportunity  to  visit  the 
toilet,  get  a  drink,  carry  a  message,  etc.  A  sixty-minute 
period  permits  of  supervised  study.  Some  schools  use  the 
first  twenty-five  or  thirty  minutes  of  the  period  for  recitation 
and  the  remaining  time  for  study  under  the  general  direc- 
tion of  the  teacher.  If  some  of  the  pupils  have  learned  to 
study  economically  and  effectively  before  entering  the  junior 
high  school,  they  may  be  segregated  during  the  last  part  of 
the  period,  while  the  teacher  devotes  his  time  to  teaching  the 
others  to  study. 

4.  Clerical  work.  There  is  an  immense  amount  of 
clerical  work  connected  with  the  administration  of  a  junior 
high  school.  It  is  best  to  have  a  principal's  clerk  to  do  it, 
but  this  is  not  always  practicable.  Some  of  it  must  be  done 
by  the  principal  himself  while  much  of  it  can  be  done  by 
delegating  it  to  teachers  or  to  pupils.  The  ringing  of  bell- 


156  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

signals,  answering  the  telephone,  running  errands  can  be 
done  by  pupils  where  there  is  no  other  agency.  Many 
pupils  like  to  do  this  kind  of  work  and  become  very  efficient. 
It  is  not  just  to  impose  upon  them;  but  the  good  training 
gained  offsets  the  loss  of  time  where  the  latter  is  small. 

In  classes  teachers  must  take  the  roll,  and  make  a  report 
to  the  principal  at  noon,  night,  after  each  period,  or  at  the 
beginning  of  each  period.  The  principal  will  find  that  his 
control  of  the  school  is  greatly  facilitated  by  following  up 
the  matters  of  attendance  closely.  It  is  well  for  him  to  de- 
vote the  whole  first  period  of  the  day  to  getting  reports  of 
absentees  and  telephoning  to  the  homes  where  there  is  doubt 
in  his  mind  about  the  cause  of  absence.  Sometimes  it  is  safe 
for  the  pupil  of  a  class  to  make  the  report  for  the  teacher 
and  hang  the  slip  on  a  hook  outside  the  class-room  door. 
The  principal  sends  a  pupil  around  to  collect  these  reports, 
assembles  them  and  keeps  the  school  record  of  attendance. 
There  is  no  excuse  for  careless  records:  they  are  the  mark 
of  a  poor  principal. 

Every  principal  should  have  a  complete  system!  of  files. 
The  card  system  is  best.  The  card  should  show  the  pupil's 
name,  age,  birthday,  nativity,  parents'  names,  address,  tele- 
phone number,  schedule  of  studies,  and  remarks.  Another 
card  may  show  his  grades,  his  characteristics,  his  vocational 
tendencies,  and  such  other  information  as  the  principal  may 
need  in  promoting  the  best  interests  of  the  pupil  and  of  the 
school.  Files  should  be  kept  under  lock  and  key  and  in  a 
fireproof  cabinet,  for  if  they  are  worth  keeping  at  all  they 
are  worth  preserving  safe  from  curious  outsiders.  Here 
again  the  principal  is  known  by  his  works,  the  systematiza- 
tion  of  his  information,  and  his  estimate  of  pupils. 

If  the  principal  does  not  have  a  stenographer,  he  should 
himself  learn  to  use  a  typewriter.  He  will  do  well  to  keep  a 


ADMINISTRATION  157 

carbon  copy  of  every  letter  he  writes,  every  order  or  instruc- 
tion he  gives,  every  report  he  makes,  as  well  as  the  original 
of  all  communications  he  receives.  These  should  be  filed  and 
indexed  so  that  he  can  readily  get  at  what  he  wants.  This 
may  cost  him  much  work  but  it  will  be  well  worth  while  as 
a  labor  saving  device.  Cross  files  are  worth  while  as  are 
also  indexes  of  information  and  data.  After  a  card  system 
has  once  been  worked  out,  it  does  not  take  long  to  make  the 
few  entries  necessary.  A  filing  system  that  merely  arranges 
correspondence  alphabetically  by  the  surname  of  the  cor- 
respondent is  not  sufficient :  there  should  be  made  an  index 
of  the  contents  of  the  correspondence. 

There  are  numerous  reports  constantly  being  called  for 
by  the  superintendent's  office  or  by  others.  These,  with  the 
regular  reports  of  attendance,  promotion  cards,  grade  cards, 
financial  statements,  form  a  large  amount  of  the  clerical 
work.  There  are  innumerable  checks,  room  excuses,  and 
passes  to  classes  to  be  filled  out  and  filed.  Then  there  is  the 
vast  amount  of  supplies  to  be  ordered  from  the  central  stock- 
room, to  be  apportioned  to  the  teachers  and  to  the  janitors. 
An  old  school  system  will  have  all  the  blanks  and  forms 
necessary  for  this  clerical  work ;  but  a  new  school  will  have 
to  attack  the  problem  of  making  up  these  forms  for  its 
own  use. 

In  this  connection  is  the  principal's  relation  to  the  janitor. 
If  the  janitor  is  chosen  for  his  efficiency  and  ability,  he  will 
keep  the  halls,  rooms,  windows,  grounds,  lawn,  and  toilets 
in  perfect  condition  without  suggestion  from  the  principal. 
Otherwise,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  chief  administrative 
officer  of  the  school  to  see  that  everything  is  in  shipshape. 
One  method  of  procedure  is  for  the  principal  to  make  a 
regular  tour  of  inspection  every  morning  at  a  certain  hour 
and  to  let  nothing  interfere  with  that  job.  He  should  first 


158  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

note  on  a  card  the  things  he  wishes  to  see  to,  and  then 
check  them  off  as  he  completes  his  inspection.  Here  are 
some  of  the  things :  Rubbish  on  grounds,  lawn,  shrubbery, 
heating  of  the  rooms,  blackboard  cleanliness,  floor  sweeping, 
desk  cleaning  and  marring,  curtains  and  light,  windows  and 
picture  glass  clean,  toilets  clean,  marking  on  the  walls,  halls 
and  offices.  Furnaces  should  be  inspected  once  a  week,  also 
fire  escapes  and  fire  hose  Repairs  should  be  attended  to 
at  once. 

5.  Student  organizations  and  activities.  The  principal 
of  a  junior  high  school  will  find  that  student  organizations 
and  activities  constitute  some  of  his  hardest  problems.  Skill- 
fully managed  they  can  be  made  to  serve  the  very  best  pur- 
poses of  education.  They  form  a  natural  outlet  for  the 
exuberance  and  turbulence  of  the  adolescent  period.  Sup- 
pression of  these  instincts  would  be  fatal  if  it  were  even 
possible.  They  must  be  carefully  guided  and  wisely  used. 
Where  they  are  quiescent  or  abortive,  they  should  be  stimu- 
lated and  cultivated  into  normal  existence.  We  shall  attempt 
to  describe  what  appears  to  us  to  be  the  best  handling  of  the 
problems. 

It  is  well  to  organize  the  whole  school  into  an  association 
of  the  student  body.  If  dues  are  exacted  they  should  be  so 
small  as  to  be  within  the  reach  of  all — not  more  than  twenty- 
five  cents  per  year.  Pupils  failing  to  pay  during  the  first 
month  of  school  should  be  given  full  membership  upon 
doing  some  work  for  the  school  such  as  leveling  the  athletic 
grounds,  irrigating  the  field,  keeping  certain  records,  or 
mending  nets  or  athletic  suits.  The  association  should 
choose  a  president  and  vice-president  from  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  graduating  class.  All  assemblies  of  the  school 
need  not  be  considered  student  body  association  meetings; 
there  will  be  many  assemblies  that  the  principal  will  want 


ADMINISTRATION  159 

to  conduct  himself  and  which  would  lack  in  effectiveness  if 
he  had  to  conform  to  the  formality  of  an  association  organ- 
ization. The  association  may  well  care  for  such  matters  as 
school  receptions  and  parties,  school  rallies,  school  debates, 
athletics,  the  school  paper,  the  cooperative  book-store,  and 
the  cafeteria.  The  association  officers  should  feel  it  their 
privilege  to  support  the  principal  and  faculty  in  all  forward 
and  uplift  movements;  and  the  principal  should  take  them 
into  his  confidence  in  many  matters  pertaining  to  student 
affairs.  Financial  matters  should  be  carefully  supervised 
and  audited  by  the  principal  or  by  some  teacher  especially 
designated  by  him. 

For  certain  specific  activities  there  may  well  be  other 
organizations,  although  some  schools  would  prefer  to  regard 
them  as  communities  or  divisions  of  the  student  body  asso- 
ciation. Such  are  debating  clubs,  literary  socieites,  class 
organizations,  girls'  clubs,  boys'  clubs,  the  band,  glee  clubs, 
athletic  teams,  the  staff  of  the  school  paper,  dramatic  club. 
Care  must  be  taken  to  prevent  friction  between  the  various 
societies.  If  they  are  all  subordinate  to  the  student  body 
association,  danger  lurks  in  the  officers  of  the  larger  body's 
assuming  too  much  authority.  We  must  not  forget  that  chil- 
dren of  this  age  lack  adult  responsibility  and  cannot  attain 
it,  no  matter  how  conscientiously  they  may  try.  Care  must 
be  exercised  to  prevent  clubs  organized  for  educational  pur- 
poses from  becoming  social  fraternities  of  pernicious  influ- 
ence and  snobbish  exclusiveness. 

Finally,  there  is  the  question  of  student  self-government, 
so  called.  In  this  plan  the  pupils  become  responsible  for  the 
discipline  in  the  school  building  and  on  the  school  grounds. 
There  are  pupil  policemen,  pupil  attendance  officers,  pupil 
judges,  pupil  juries,  pupil  prosecutors  and  defenders.  The 
faculty  is  usually  regarded  as  the  supreme  court.  The  stu- 


l6o  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

dent  body  meeting  assembled  makes  laws  and  ordinances 
governing  conduct.  It  is  fine  and  most  excellent  training  in 
citizenship  and  political  science. 

As  a  movement  it  started  with  the  universities,  has  been 
carried  out  successfully  by  many  high  schools,  and  is  being 
tried  in  several  junior  high  schools.  It  makes  more  work 
for  the  faculty  and  requires  infinite  skill  of  the  principal.  In 
his  own  schools  the  writer  has  begun  to  try  out  the  plan, 
entrusting  at  first  only  very  limited  powers  to  the  students. 
As  they  develop  the  essential  qualities,  greater  and  greater 
authority  will  be  extended  to  them.  It  will  be  necessary, 
however,  for  tradition  to  have  time  to  establish  good  prece- 
dents and  serviceable  customs  before  the  school  can  succeed 
on  a  large  scale. 

6.  Accessories  of  teaching.  There  are  certain  acces- 
sories of  teaching  that  the  principal  has  to  attend  to  in  order 
to  secure  smoothness  in  the  working  of  the  school  machinery. 
One  of  these  is  supplies.  Most  school  districts  furnish  pens, 
pencils,  ink,  paper,  blotters,  and  similar  materials ;  in  somie 
states,  if  not  all,  the  law  makes  it  obligatory  upon  the  school 
board  to  furnish  these  things.  Some  rule  should  be  estab- 
lished for  giving  out  these  supplies  as  they,  of  course,  should 
not  be  furnished  lavishly  to  the  pupils.  A  reasonable  number 
of  things,  say  three  pencils,  one  penholder,  three  writing 
tablets,  ten  blotters,  may  be  furnished  each  semester.  If 
the  pupil  loses  or  uses  up  all  this  material  in  less  than  the 
five  months,  he  would  have  to  purchase  the  things  he  needs. 
A  co-operative  store  might  be  conducted  for  this  purpose. 

Some  schools  furnish  free  textbooks.  They  are  handled 
through  the  principal's  office  either  directly  or  by  a  teacher 
designated  by  the  principal.  In  a  large  school  this  work 
takes  more  time  than  a  teacher  may  be  expected  to  devote  to 
it  after  school.  If  there  is  not  a  clerk  to  do  this  work,  the 


ADMINISTRATION  l6l 

teacher  should  be  given  one  or  two  periods  of  school  time 
for  it.  There  is  more  involved  in  the  furnishing  of  text- 
books than  the  mere  money  cost ;  there  is  a  high  moral  con- 
tent. Boys  and  girls  do  not  contribute  anything  that  causes 
a  sacrifice ;  they  do  not  o^vn  the  books ;  they  are  responsible 
for  public  property.  Then  there  are  the  habits  of  accounting 
for  things,  taking  care  of  things,  and  feeling  pride  in  posses- 
sion. Altogether,  the  furnishing  of  books  free  is  so  fraught 
with  possibilities  of  good  and  evil  that  it  is  a  very  important 
matter. 

Where  free  textbooks  are  not  provided,  it  is  sometimes 
possible  for  the  co-operative  book  store  to  rent  them  to  the 
pupils  at  such  a  rate  as  to  make  a  profit  on  the  transaction. 
If  this  is  done,  it  devolves  upon  the  principal  to  keep  careful 
check  of  the  whole  matter.  This  service  will  be  of  great 
advantage  to  pupils,  especially  where  expensive  instruments, 
such  as  mechanical  drawing  sets,  are  obtainable.  As  years 
go  by,  the  store  may  accumulate  sufficient  surplus  to  enlarge 
its  operations  in  many  lines. 

The  management  and  effective  use  of  a  moving  picture 
plant  entails  upon  the  principal  many  administrative  burdens. 
Ordinarily  it  will  be  necessary  for  him  to  operate  the 
machine,  arrange  for  securing  proper  educational  films,  work 
out  the  details  of  assembling  classes,  etc.  If  these  matters 
are  not  carefully  worked  out  and  followed  up  by  the  princi- 
pal himself,  he  will  find  that  the  enthusiasm  first  displayed 
upon  installing  the  machine  will  gradually  wane  and  the 
visual  methods  of  instruction  will  be  discontinued  altogether. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  other  valuable  aids  to  teaching. 
The  tendency  of  the  teacher  is  to  neglect  those  methods  of 
teaching  that  require  elaborate  preparation  and  irksome  de- 
lays. If  globes,  charts,  stereoscopic  views,  herbaria,  in- 


l62  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

accessible  specimens,  etc.,  are  to  be  used,  the  principal  must 
make  it  his  business  to  help  get  things  ready. 

Every  junior  high  school  should  have  a  good  working 
library,  well-stored  with  books,  and  easily  accessible  to  stu- 
dents. Someone  must  attend  to  the  purchasing  of  books  and 
nriagazines,  cataloguing  them,  and  issuing  them  to  pupils, 
Then  someone  must  advise  teachers  and  children  what  to 
read  and  where  to  find  it.  Frequently  debaters  need  help  in 
getting  material.  It  is  desirable  to  make  up  bibliographies 
on  various  subjects  to  be  taught.  The  principal  has  to  get 
someone  to  do  these  things  or  else  do  them  himself.  In  a 
small  school  the  principal  would  probably  find  it  best  to 
assign  a  teacher  to  this  work.  In  a  large  school,  a  librarian 
should  be  employed. 

7.  School  interruptions,  exercises,  etc.  Among  the 
problems  with  which  the  principal  has  to  cope  are  the  in- 
terruptions to  regular  routine  work — some  pernicious,  some 
wholesome,  some  preventible,  some  unpreventible.  Occa- 
sionally the  good  of  the  school  demands  that  routine  work 
be  interrupted  for  an  hour,  a  day,  or  a  week  and  the  chil- 
dren be  given  something  that  educates,  elevates  or  rests 
them.  Vacations  and  holidays  are  usually  decided  upon  by 
the  board  of  education  or  the  superintendent.  Sometimes 
there  is  a  demand  for  a  slightly  early  afternoon  dismissal, 
for  a  short  rainy-day  session,  or  for  an  hour  on  the  lawn. 
Such  matters  are  put  up  to  the  principal.  If  too  frequent, 
they  greatly  hinder  good  school  work;  if  very,  very  infre- 
quent, something  good  may  be  lost. 

After  all,  it  is  a  matter  for  the  principal  to  weigh  and  con- 
sider, to  experiment  with  and  to  record  results.  How  often 
shall  I  have  fire-drill?  How  shall  I  conduct  it?  One  thing 
is  essential  to  make  a  fire-drill  worth  anything — everybody 
must  be  required  to  leave  the  building,  teachers  and  princi- 


ADMINISTRATION  163 

pal  included.  Speed  is  desirable,  lack  of  conflict  should  pre- 
vail. It  is  far  best  that  no  one  except  the  principal  should 
know  whether  it  is  a  fire-drill  or  a  real  fire.  If  a  careful 
direction  is  given  to  the  school  at  the  beginning  of  each 
semester,  one  drill  per  month  should  be  frequent  enough. 

Assemblies  should  be  called  when  the  principal  has  some- 
thing important  to  give.  Many  principals  keep  a  note  of 
matters  as  they  come  up,  and  when  several  have  accumu- 
lated, they  call  the  students  together  and  announce  all  the 
matters  at  one  time.  A  principal  will  invite  noted  speakers 
and  others  who  happen  to  be  in  town  at  the  time  to  come  to 
the  school  and  deliver  a  message  to  the  assembled  students. 
It  may  be  a  distinguished  singer,  artist,  actor,  author,  gov- 
ernment official,  or  other  person  whom  the  pupils  would 
profit  by  seeing  and  hearing  speak.  The  principal  will  have 
to  be  careful  to  stave  off  people  who  wish  to  make  use  of  the 
school  for  advertising  their  wares  or  talents. 

Some  other  problems  in  this  connection  are  the  manage- 
ment of  telephone  calls,  the  disposal  of  photographers,  and 
the  meeting  with  school-book  men.  Many  schools  have  re- 
moved the  telephones  because  of  the  temptation  to  parents 
to  use  them  on  the  simplest  pretexts.  The  telephone  girl 
becomes  a  slave  to  parents  who  want  this  child  to  do  this  or 
that  before  coming  home  at  night.  Other  schools  have  a 
rule  that  no  pupil  or  teacher  shall  be  called  out  of  class 
except  upon  extremely  serious  matters.  Pupils  are  not  per- 
mitted to  use  the  school  telephone  except  upon  school  busi- 
ness. A  charge  of  five  cents  for  the  use  of  the  'phone  would 
probably  stop  its  indiscriminate  use.  In  many  towns  pho- 
tographers pester  the  principal  with  requests  to  permit  them 
to  take  the  pictures  of  classes,  groups  of  pupils,  or  interiors 
of  rooms,  offices,  and  apparatus.  The  principal  will  be 
expected  to  guard  the  interests  of  the  school  children  and 


164  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

not  permit  interruptions  and  loss  of  pupils'  time.  Represen- 
tatives of  school-book  companies  visit  the  school  frequently 
and  consume  much  time  of  principal  and  teachers.  This 
time  is  not  wasted;  in  fact  the  selection  of  proper  text  and 
supplementary  books  is  of  the  very  highest  value.  Such 
representatives  are  usually  courteous  and  considerate.  The 
principal  will  arrange  for  their  meeting  the  teachers  without 
interfering  with  the  regular  work  of  the  school. 

8.  Moral  guidance.  In  discussing  this  subject  at  this 
place  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  by  the  reader  that  we  are 
treating  it  purely  as  a  part  of  the  administrative  functions  of 
the  principal  and  teachers.  If  it  were  treated  in  full,  it 
should  properly  occupy  a  chapter  of  a  book  of  this  kind. 
We  have  preferred  to  discuss  moral  education  in  connection 
with  each  subject  as  it  has  come  up. 

Unquestionably,  the  formation  of  moral  character  is  of 
tremendous  importance  throughout  the  school  age,  and  the 
period  of  adolescence  is  especially  fraught  with  possibilities. 
We  have  spoken  of  the  adolescent  age  as  that  of  religious 
awakening,  of  conversion,  and  of  emotional  religious  experi- 
ence. It  is  also  a  period  of  the  awakening  of  social  con- 
sciousness and  responsibility.  Psychologically,  it  is  a  period 
of  doubt,  introspection,  brooding,  self-examination,  self-re- 
proach and  condemnation,  of  a  feeling  of  unworthiness.  But 
it  is,  likewise,  an  age  of  stubbornness,  rebellion  against 
restraint,  violent  passion,  ill  temper,  greediness,  carelessness 
in  speech,  and  the  awakening  of  sexual  desire.  These  anti- 
moral  and  anti-social  instincts  find  expression  in  laziness, 
truancy,  slovenliness,  slang,  disrespect,  over-dressing,  over- 
eating, swearing,  dancing,  smoking,  sexual  vices,  lying,  and 
thievery.  While  the  sins  of  adolescent  girls  are  less  spec- 
tacular and  apparent  than  those  of  boys,  they  are  neverthe- 
less just  as  real  and  just  as  undermining  to  moral  character. 


ADMINISTRATION  165 

The  tendency  of  parents  is  to  minimize  the  importance  of 
adolescent  excesses;  the  tendency  of  the  church  is  to  over- 
estimate their  importance.  The  position  the  school  should 
take  is  one  of  sympathetic  treatment  of  the  adolescent  victim, 
who  is  not  responsible  for  the  temptations. 

Something  wholesome  must  needs  be  substituted  for  the 
bad.  Principals  and  teachers  cannot  shut  their  eyes  to  what 
is  going  on ;  they  must  create  a  clean  atmosphere  for  the 
school.  We  knew  of  a  small  high  school  where  the  teachers 
all  left  the  building  at  noon,  where  the  boys  and  girls  danced 
during  the  absence  of  the  teachers,  where  flirtations  had 
sapped  the  vitality  of  the  school,  where  boys  and  girls  sat 
in  single  seats  together  during  intermission  and  even  during 
school  hours,  where  swearing  was  common  on  the  school 
grounds,  where  cheating  in  school  and  in  athletics  was  the 
rule,  where  books  of  the  school  and  supplies  were  stolen 
daily,  where  truancy  went  unpunished  and  unnoticed,  where 
disorder  was  rampant,  where  the  principal  was  assaulted  by 
several  boys,  where  obscene  literature  and  pictures  circu- 
lated among  the  pupils  of  both  sexes,  where  the  whole  week 
was  a  feverish  preparation  for  Friday  night's  dance.  This 
was  a  high  school  that  had  no  eleventh  grade  and  fewer 
than  a  dozen  pupils  in  the  twelfth.  It  was  practically  a 
junior  high  school,  and  the  problems  existing  in  it  are  dupli- 
cated in  every  such  school. 

The  principal  that  undertakes  the  moral  guidance  of  such 
a  school  has  a  tremendous  task.  His  teachers  must  be  care- 
fully chosen  and  carefully  assigned  to  strategic  positions 
where  offenders  can  be  detected  and  offences  prevented.  The 
junior  high  school  must  not  be  made  a  reformatory  or  a  peni- 
tentiary. If  it  devotes  its  main  attention  to  dealing  with 
offenders  one  by  one,  it  will  soon  meet  destruction.  It  must 
be  organized  with  the  idea  of  giving  adolescents  so  much  of 


l66  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

good  to  do  that  the  bad  cannot  creep  in.  Here  the  school 
must  rely  on  physical  exercises,  clean  sports,  manual  activi- 
ties, pure  social  pleasures,  correct  diet,  clean  but  absorbingly 
interesting  books,  simple  dress  (school  uniforms  if  neces- 
sary to  curb  a  propensity  already  existing),  politeness  and 
good  manners.  The  underlying  principle  is,  keep  the  ado- 
lescent so  busy  doing  right  things  that  he  will  not  have  time 
to  do  wrong.  This  may  extend  to  the  point  of  co-operating 
with  the  pupil's  home  in  a  24-hour  daily  program.  Suc- 
cessful will  be  that  principal  who  secures  the  confidence  of 
the  homes  so  that  he  can  supervise  not  only  the  school  hours 
of  the  pupil  but  the  home  hours  also.  If  he  can  go  further 
and  work  out  with  the  churches  a  program  for  Sundays,  his 
influence  for  good  will  be  unbounded. 

Suppose,  however,  that  a  principal  and  faculty  find  a 
junior  high  school  in  the  condition  of  the  high  school 
described  above,  what  can  they  do?  To  expel  gross  offend- 
ers and  try  to  reform  petty  offenders  may  become  necessary. 
But  the  chief  task  to  be  attacked  will  be  the  educating  of  the 
school  in  higher  standards  of  right.  This  means  a  well 
planned  campaign  that  must  involve  sympathy,  resourceful- 
ness, wisdom,  tact,  understanding  of  adolescent's  mental 
activities,  force,  and  even,  perphaps,  the  mailed  fist.  The 
manly,  the  heroic,  the  courageous,  the  chivalric,  the  war-like, 
the  religious  spirit  of  boys  must  be  appealed  to  along  the  line 
pursued  by  the  Boy  Scouts  organization.  The  pure,  the 
chaste,  the  health-seeking,  the  out-door,  the  fun-loving,  the 
religious  spirit  of  girls  must  be  appealed  to  along  lines 
adopted  by  the  Camp  Fire  clubs.  It  may  be  necessary  to  talk 
very  clearly  to  each  sex,  or  even  to  assign  boys  and  girls  to 
separate  classes  or  schools.  Moral  guidance  is  a  paramount 
function  of  the  junior  high  school;  it  must  succeed  in  this 
work  no  matter  how  drastic  may  be  the  actions  necessary. 


CHAPTER  TEN 

RELATION  TO  THE  SENIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  AND 
JUNIOR  COLLEGE 

In  this  chapter  we  wish  to  describe  the  effect  of  the  junior 
high  school  movement  upon  the  upper  secondary  school,  and 
the  latter's  reflex  action  upon  the  former.  This  is  by  no 
means  purely  prognostication,  for  the  results  described  in 
this  chapter  have  already  been  fully  realized  in  communities 
where  the  movement  has  been  long  in  existence. 

1 .  The  senior  high  school  and  the  tenth  grade.  His- 
torically it  is  a  fact  that  a  lower  institution  tends  to  reach  up 
and  seize  upon  the  matters  that  have  been  originated  by  the 
higher.  In  recent  years  we  have  seen  this  go  on  with  accel- 
erated speed.  College  athletics,  nomenclature,  mannerisms, 
student  self-government,  methods  of  teaching,  courses  of 
study  have  been  seized  upon  by  high  schools  and  adopted. 
Colleges  have  copied  the  universities,  have  tried,  in  fact,  to 
become  universities,  and  in  many  cases  have  succeeded.  The 
universities  have  striven  to  become  graduate  institutions  and 
have  succeeded.  The  intermediate  school  movement  was 
given  impetus  by  the  ambition  of  seventh  and  eighth  grade 
teachers  to  reach  up  and  do  high  school  work.  The  author 
knows  of  several  junior  high  schools  that  were  originally 
organized  as  seventh  and  eighth  grade  schools,  or  sixth, 
seventh  and  eighth  grade  institutions.  They  soon  began  to 
do  high  school  work  and  in  a  remarkably  short  time  had 
annexed  the  ninth  grade. 

With  this  strong  tendency,  it  is  altogether  likely  that  the 
junior  high  school  will  gradually  seize  upon  the  tenth  grade. 
It  has  already  done  so  in  many  communities.  This  has 
happened  even  where  no  attempt  was  made  to  do  four 

167 


168  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

grades  in  three  years.  It  has  been  gradual,  almost  unno- 
ticed. Where  four  of  the  sixteen  college  entrance  credits 
were  required  for  entrance  to  the  senior  high  school,  there 
are  many  boys  and  girls  who  find  at  the  end  of  the  ninth 
year  that  they  have  actually  earned  five.  Others  complete 
the  year  with  only  three  credits  or  even  fewer  and  find  that 
they  must  stay  another  year.  Such  pupils — and  they  are 
numerous — enter  senior  high  school  practically  as  eleventh 
grade  students.  For  a  long  timfe  the  tenth  year  work  is 
offered  in  both  the  higher  and  the  lower  institutions,  but  this 
duplication  is  uneconomical.  The  question  with  the  admin- 
istration becomes,  which  school  shall  do  the  tenth  grade? 
The  lower  salaries,  the  smaller  laboratory  equipment  re- 
quired, the  ambition  of  the  lower  school,  the  pre-occupation 
of  the  higher  school  with  a  reaching  up  to  do  college  work 
— all  combine  to  give  the  victory  to  the  junior  high  school. 

2.  The  upper  secondary  school's  tendency  to  become 
college-like.  Paralleling  this  evolution  is  the  junior  college 
movement,  which  in  the  few  years  of  its  existence  has  made 
even  more  rapid  progress  than  the  intermediate  school.  The 
reason  for  its  greater  swiftness  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  high  school  was  already  a  well  organized  insti- 
tution with  great  power  and  prestige,  whereas  the  interme- 
diate school  had  to  become  established  before  it  could  begin 
to  reach  upward.  High  school  teachers  and  administrators 
are  well  organized,  well  paid,  high  spirited  and  aggressive. 
It  would  manifestly  be  impossible  to  keep  them  down,  even 
were  it  desirable.  Once  aroused  their  ambition  to  do  college 
work,  they  moved  forward  with  characteristic  impetuosity 
toward  an  inevitable  goal.  That  goal  was  the  annexation,  to 
every  good-sized  high  school,  of  the  two  first  years  of  col- 
lege, commonly  called  the  junior  college  .  This  movement  is 
gaining  in  force.  In  California  alone  there  are  now  more 


RELATION   TO   SENIOR   HIGH    AND   JUNIOR   COLLEGE     169 

than  twenty  high  schools  with  full-fledged  junior  colleges. 
A  law  has  just  been  passed  by  the  California  Legislature  that 
encourages  the  establishment  of  a  junior  college  in  every 
county,  and  in  connection  with  every  city  high  school. 

Whither  does  this  movement  tend?  If  the  high  school 
had  continued  to  be  a  four-year  school,  it  is  likely  that  the 
junior  college  would  have  held  aloof  as  a  post-graduate  but 
separate  institution.  In  time  such  a  junior  college  would, 
by  the  theory  described  under  paragraph  i,  have  reached 
up  and  secured  the  third  and  possiby  fourth  years  of  college. 
This  has  actually  happened  in  a  few  cities  where  junior  col- 
leges have  grown  into  four-year  city  colleges  or  universities. 
This  result  would  have  been  deplorable  because  it  would 
have  left  unsolved  the  problem  of  making  a  distinct  separa- 
tion of  the  fields  of  activity  of  colleges  and  universities.  We 
feel  that  the  present  duplication  of  work  in  these  two  insti- 
tutions and  the  consequent  rivalry  does  not  result  advan- 
tageously for  the  cause  of  education. 

But  the  high  school  has  not  continued  to  be  a  four-year 
institution.  The  junior  high  school  movement  has  taken 
from  it  one  year  and  will  in  a  short  time  take  away  a  second 
year.  This  will  reduce  the  old  high  school  to  a  two-year 
curriculum — the  eleventh  and  twelfth  grades.  Thus  shorn 
of  its  lower  two  years,  it  reaches  up  and  takes  over  the  two 
first  years  of  college.  It  is  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  such 
an  anomalous  condition  will  continue  to  exist.  Unquestion- 
ably the  senior  high  school  and  junior  college  must  become 
welded  into  one  organic  whole,  functioning  as  one  insti- 
tution. 

Assuming  this  amalgamation  as  an  inevitable  certainty, 
the  inquiry  naturally  arises  as  to  what  will  be  the  nature  of 
the  new  institution.  Again  we  are  led  by  an  established  rule 
that  an  institution  takes  its  flavor  from  its  upper-classmen, 


170  THE;  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  its  lower  classmen  excel  in 
numbers.  The  fact  is  so  apparent  that  is  not  open  to  debate. 
It  must  follow  that  the  senior  high  school- junior  college  is 
to  become  collegiate  in  its  nature  rather  than  like  a  high 
school.  It  should  therefore  be  given  such  a  name  as  to 
indicate  its  nature.  We  presume  for  convenience  to  call  it 
the  collegiate  school  or  the  people's  college.  The  term 
"junior"  is  relative  in  significance  and  to  describe  a  per- 
manent institution  could  not  long  endure.  The  junior  high 
school  miust  become  the  high  school;  the  junior  college,  the 
college  of  the  future. 

3.  Nature  of  the  people's  college.  It  may  safely  be 
assumed  that  the  collegiate  school  is  not  to  be  simply  a 
college,  that  is,  it  will  not  be  just  what  a  conventional  col- 
lege now  is.  It  will  become  more  and  more  collegiate,  but 
the  presence  of  younger  students  will  prevent  its  becoming 
what  we  now  know  as  a  college.  Its  history  and  heredity 
will  prevent  that.  Born  of  a  college  father  and  a  high  school 
mother,  the  collegiate  school  will  resemble  both  its  parents 
but  will  not  actually  be  either.  It  serves  a  new  generation,  is 
brought  up  under  different  conditions  and  influenced  by  a 
different  environment. 

Let  us  examine  for  a  moment  its  probable  characteristics : 
It  will  be  democratic  in  principle  and  in  composition.  The 
conventional  college  is  aristocratic  in  principle  appealing  to 
only  one  class.  That  class  is  supposed  to  contain  the  best 
brains  of  the  state.  But  the  test  for  admission  to  this  class — 
called  intellectual — is  a  superficial  examination  based  upon 
proficiency  in  certain  studies  themselves  superficial.  If  a 
boy  can  -master  algebra  and  geometry,  physics,  chemistry, 
ancient  and  modern  history,  and  a  foreign  language,  he  is 
considered  intellectually  an  aristocrat,  and  per  se  is  admitted 
to  the  conventional  college.  One  hears  nowadays  the  fre- 


RELATION   TO   SENIOR   HIGH    AND   JUNIOR   COLLEGE     171 

quent  statement  that  it  is  best  for  some  boys  that  they  never 
go  to  college,  for,  forsooth,  they  are  incapable  of  doing  col- 
lege work!  The  colleges  turn  back  many  from  their  doors 
and  many  more  they  eliminate  later  by  examinations.  These 
boys,  say  the  wise  ones,  are  incapable  of  acquiring  a  college 
education,  and  would  be  better  off  doing  something  for  a 
living,  learning  a  trade,  farming,  or  laboring  by  the  day! 
(It  is  hard  to  refrain  from  questioning  such  wise  ones 
whether  such  a  college  education — impossible  to  the  masses 
— is  worth  while  to  anybody.) 

The  people's  college  is  growing  up  in  opposition  to,  or  in 
competition  with,  the  conventional  college.  It  may,  there- 
fore, be  assumed  that  it  will  tack  off  at  a  different  angle.  The 
foundation  of  this  new  institution  is  the  principle  of  in- 
tellectual democracy.  It  is  a  college  to  train  the  minds, 
bodies  and  souls  of  all  the  people.  Hence,  we  shall  expect 
to  find  in  its  student  body  people  representing  all  varieties 
of  intellectual  characteristics.  Such  catholicity  of  purpose, 
such  broadness  of  scope  must  make  a  strong  appeal  to  the 
youth  of  America.  Trained  in  such  an  institution  the  people 
of  our  country  will  tend  to  become  more  and  more  demo- 
cratic. 

In  the  second  place,  the  people's  college  will  be  a  finish- 
ing school  more  largely  than  a  university  preparatory  school. 
It  may  be  assumed  that  most  students  will  enter  it  at  fifteen 
or  sixteen  years  of  age  and  will  finish  the  regular  four-year 
course  by  the  age  of  nineteen  or  twenty.  This  is  a  good 
age  at  which  to  begin  a  professional  course  at  university ;  but 
it  is  also  an  age  of  sufficient  maturity  to  justify  beginning  a 
career.  Entering  an  occupation  at  the  age  of  twenty,  a  man 
should  be  self-sustaining  from  the  first  and  within  three  or 
four  years  should  be  capable  of  supporting  a  family.  A  girl 
finishing  school  thus  early  may  enjoy  a  period  of  four  or 


172  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

five  years  in  a  self-supporting  occupation  and  still  marry 
early.  On  the  other  hand,  completing  her  school  education 
at  twenty,  she  finds  herself  sufficiently  mature  in  purpose  to 
marry  with  judgment.  It  may,  therefore,  be  assumed  that  the 
courses  in  the  people's  college  will  aim  to  complete  the  stu- 
dent's school  education  and  to  prepare  him  to  enter  directly 
into  the  adult  world. 

In  the  third  place,  the  collegiate  school  is  to  be  predom- 
inantly vocational.  The  argument  that  a  person  should  not 
enter  an  occupation  at  an  early  age  does  not  have  much 
weight  in  this  case.  In  the  seven-year  or  eight-grade  second- 
ary course  it  is  possible  to  give  him  broad  culture  and  social 
and  civic  education  as  well.  But  as  he  advances  in  this 
course  the  vocational  element  becomes  more  and  more  pre- 
dominant until  in  the  last  year  it  practically  approximates 
the  conditions  of  the  adult  world  where  the  vocation  occupies 
three-fourths  of  the  day.  An  illustration  will  disclose  our 
meaning : 

nth  Year  I2th  Year  I3th  Year  I4th  Year 

1.  Agriculture  Horticulture         Agronomy  Live    Stock 

2.  Chemistry  Farm  Mechanics  Irrigation  Soil  Analysis 

3.  U.  S.  History  Economics  Farm  Bkpg.  Farm 

Management 

4.  English  Dramatics  Art  Farm-Home- 

Literature  Planning 

In  this  course  agriculture  is  the  occupation  aimed  at.  In 
the  first  year  of  the  people's  college  the  student  takes  one 
directly  vocational  study,  one  science-vocational  study,  one 
civic  study,  and  one  culture  study.  In  the  second  year  two 
courses  are  directly  vocational,  one  couse  is  civic-vocational, 
and  one  is  cultural.  In  the  third  year,  three  courses  are 
directly  vocational,  and  one  course  is  cultural.  Finally,  in 
the  fourth  year,  all  four  courses  are  directly  vocational, 
although  one  of  the  four  is  cultural-vocational.  In  such  a 


RELATION   TO   SENIOR   HIGH    AND  JUNIOR   COLLEGE     173 

program  we  find  the  occupation  booking  larger  and  larger, 
the  science,  civic,  and  cultural  subjects  contributing  in- 
directly, then  directly  to  the  main  current.  This  is  as  it  is  in 
the  adult  world  where  the  vocation  is  the  central  artery  of 
life  with  physical  pleasures,  cultural  enjoyment,  scientific 
method,  and  civic  activities  contributing  to  it  and  dependent 
upon  it. 

4.  Effect  of  the  people's  college  upon  the  junior  high 
school  curriculum.  Let  us  first  ascertain  what  proportion 
of  boys  and  girls  will  take  in  people's  college  the  occupa- 
tional courses  and  what  proportion  will  prepare  for  uni- 
versity or  other  professional  school.  Of  the  boys  finishing 
high  school  throughout  the  country  only  47  per  cent  go  to 
college  or  university  and  fewer  than  6  per  cent  take  profes- 
sional courses.  Of  the  girls  in  high  school  92  per  cent  even- 
tually marry  and  enter  the  vocation  of  keeping  house.  About 
51  per  cent  go  to  university,  normal  or  other  professional 
institution.  But  those  who  graduate  from  high  school  form 
only  one  half  of  those  who  finish  the  ninth  grade.  It  may 
therefore  be  assumed  that  about  24  per  cent  of  boys  and  26 
per  cent  of  girls  entering  people's  college  (tenth  grade)  will 
go  to  university,  college  or  normal  school.  The  college 
preparatory  feature  of  the  collegiate  school  should  there- 
fore be  of  far  less  importance  than  the  occupational  features. 

This  puts  it  squarely  up  to  the  junior  high  school  to  give 
to  75  per  cent  of  both  boys  and  girls  most  of  the  physical, 
scientific,  civic,  and  cultural  education  that  they  are  ever  to 
get.  From  the  specimen  program;  given  in  section  3 — which 
is  essentially  like  all  others — it  is  seen  that  one  year  each  of 
chemistry,  United  States  history,  literature,  art,  dramatics 
and  economics  is  all  of  the  non-vocational  work  that  may  be 
gotten  in  people's  college  while  two  other  courses  are  gen- 
eral enough  to  be  accepted  for  entrance  to  university — that 


174  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

is,  two  years  of  solid  work.  In  the  past  educators  have 
pointed  out  that  four  solid  years  of  physical,  scientific,  civic, 
and  cultural  education  are  none  too  many  for  the  good  of  the 
American  people.  If  we  agree  with  those  premises,  we  must 
conclude  that  two  years  of  this  kind  of  education  must  be 
obtained  in  the  intermediate  school.  This  would  leave  only 
three-fifths  of  a  junior  high  school  year  as  the  maximum  for 
vocational  work.  If  fifteen  courses  are  offered  in  junior 
high  school,  twelve  should  be  of  the  type  described  above, 
and  three  may  be  vocational. 

For  the  boy  whose  economic  circumstances  or  whose  ad- 
vanced age  does  not  force  the  vocational  work  upon  him  in 
the  junior  high  school,  this  heavy  diet  of  non-occupational 
courses  will  be  highly  suitable.  It  may  be  hoped  that  the 
boy  will  not  have  to  take  in  junior  high  school  any  more 
vocational  or  prevocational  work  than  will  be  sufficient  to 
help  him  and  others  determine  what  occupation  field  he 
would  do  best  to  enter.  He  may  then  have  time  to  develop 
those  other  interests  that  are  so  essential  to  a  well-rounded 
American.  Chief  among  these  is  physical  development 
which  includes  health,  knowledge  of  nature's  laws,  manual 
dexterity,  motor  control,  and  muscularity.  These  become 
the  basis  sine  qua  non  of  all  education.  Ranking  next  in 
importance  is  civic  or  social  education  which  embraces 
world  history,  American  history,  civic  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities, and  community  well-being.  There  is,  of  course,  in- 
separably connected  with  social  education  the  necessity  for 
a  good  command  of  the  English  language  which  is  an  essen- 
tial of  community  well-being.  The  scientific  spirit  and 
method  rank  high  in  the  aims  of  junior  high  school  training, 
most  readily  acquired  by  means  of  the  science?.  Finally, 
culture  or  the  ability  to  enjoy  the  refining  things  of  life, 
must  occupy  much  of  the  time  of  adolescent  education.  Here 


RELATION   TO   SENIOR   HIGH    AND  JUNIOR   COLLEGE     175 

we  classify  English  literature,  art,  music,  and  in  a  measure 
history,  science,  manual  training. 

There  is,  however,  to  be  cared  for  the  boy  or  girl  who 
intends  to  enter  a  profession.  This  means  that  he  is  to  take 
a  university  course  after  he  has  finished  the  people's  college, 
and  in  the  training  of  these  young  people  we  must  be  guided 
by  what  the  universities  lay  down  as  the  necessary  basis  for 
a  professional  education.  It  of  course  differs  for  various 
professions  and  for  various  universities.  For  the  profession 
of  law,  historical,  legal,  logical,  linguistic  studies  are  recom- 
mended by  the  university  authorities.  The  secondary  schools 
must  therefore  provide  two  years  of  Latin,  two  of  pure 
mathematics,  one  of  advanced  civics,  one  of  logic,  two  of 
English  composition,  and  varying  amounts  of  political 
science,  economics,  advanced  history,  foreign  languages,  de- 
bate, public  speaking,  science — in  short,  so  much  that  seven 
years  are  not  too  long  for  accomplishing  it  all.  The  inevit- 
able result  is  that  it  throws  back  upon  the  junior  high  school 
the  giving  of  the  Latin,  mathematics,  sciences,  and  much 
history.  If  the  pupil  manages  to  squeeze  in  physical  educa- 
tion, scientific  training  and  a  few  cultural  courses,  he  will 
probably  have  to  work  overtime.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
requirements  for  other  professional  courses. 

Thus  we  find  crowded  into  the  three  junior  high  school 
years  nnuch  of  what  formerly  was  done  in  high  school;  at 
least  the  first  two  years  of  high  school.  This  consisted  of 
physical  development,  scientific  education,  civic  education, 
culture,  and  university  preparatory  courses. 

5.  Effect  of  people's  college  upon  junior  high  schools 
in  cities.  Just  a  word  should  be  said  of  the  relations  exist- 
ing between  collegiate  and  junior  high  schools  in  a  city 
where  there  exists  one  people's  college  or  more  than  one. 
The  problems  are  not  essentially  different  in  a  city  large 


I/G  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

enough  to  have  five  colleges  from  those  in  a  city  having  but 
one  college  The  questions  arise  out  of  conditions  where  one 
board  of  education  governs  both  the  higher  secondary  school 
and  the  lower  ones.  Such  a  city  will  have  a  superintendent 
whose  sympathies  and  interests  will  lead  him  to  promote 
harmony  between  the  two  grades  of  schools.  He  will  see  to 
it  that  the  higher  school  does  not  dictate  to  the  lower  schools, 
and  that  the  lower  do  not  train  the  children  away  from  the 
higher.  It  will  be  his  desire  to  secure  perfect  articulation 
between  the  schools  so  that  pupils  are  promoted  from  one  to 
the  other  without  friction,  loss  of  time  or  credits,  and  with 
such  smoothness  that  there  will  be  no  dropping  out  of  school 
at  this  point. 

There  will  be  administratively  many  problems  that  will 
have  to  be  met  as  they  arise,  such  as  the  question  of  whether 
there  shall  be  diplomas  issued  to  those  finishing  the  junior 
high  school  and  whether  there  shall  be  graduation  exercises. 
There  seems  to  be  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  students  to 
have  graduation  exercises  at  which  diplomas  shall  be  issued 
to  them  by  high  authority.  This  diploma  should  state  that 
it  is  a  certificate  of  satisfactory  completion  of  a  certain 
curriculum  and  of  promotion  to  the  collegiate  school.  There 
should  be  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  pupil  that  he  must  go 
on  to  the  higher  school.  It  will  be  the  aim  of  the  superin- 
tendent to  get  loo  per  cent  of  the  graduates  to  enter  the  col- 
lege and  to  do  it  at  once.  Graduation  exercises  will  be  held 
in  the  middle  of  the  school  year  when  no  long  vacation  may 
interfere  with  the  continuity  of  the  work.  After  the 
diplomas  have  been  presented,  the  dean  of  the  collegiate 
school  should  address  the  graduates  welcoming  them  into 
his  institution.  He  will  have  an  opportunity  at  this  time  of 
influencing  those  who  are  undecided  about  their  future. 
Even  before  finishing  the  junior  high  school,  the  pupils  will 


RELATION   TO   SENIOR   HIGH    AND  JUNIOR   COLLEGE     1/7 

have  been  under  the  instruction  of  the  vocational  adviser. 
He  will  have  made  out  all  the  college  courses  of  study  of 
those  who  are  about  to  graduate.  There  will  be  very  little 
break  between  the  lower  and  the  higher  school. 

Promoting  by  subjects,  there  are  bound  to  be  some  cases 
of  uneven  promotion.  If  eight  credits  are  required  for  admis- 
sion to  the  people's  college,  some  pupils  will  graduate  from 
the  lower  school  with  nine  or  even  ten.  Shall 
these  extra  credits  be  recognized  in  the  collegiate  school,  or 
shall  they  be  regarded  merely  as  making  the  pupil  more  fit 
to  do  the  college  work?  Shall  there  be  a  standard  grade  of 
work  in  the  junior  high  school  in  order  that  the  pupil  may 
be  permitted  to  do  college  work?  What  should  be  that 
standard  or  recommendable  grade?  Shall  the  collegiate 
school  maintain  classes  in  algebra,  geometry,  etc.,  for  the 
benefit  of  pupils  who  did  not  take  those  branches  in  the 
junior  high  school  and  yet  who  now  need  them  for  certain 
new  purposes  unforseen  when  the  pupil  was  in  the  junior 
high  school?  If  not,  what  shall  be  the  plan  of  taking  .care 
of  such  cases?  Shall  there  be  a  standard  of  excellence  in 
the  use  of  English  required  for  admission  to  the  collegiate 
school?  Shall  there  be  a  physical  standard?  These  are 
questions  for  each  superintendent  to  answer.  They  cannot 
be  answered  ipse  divit  or  ex  cathedra.  The  broad  principle 
must  underlie  these  answers,  that  the  people's  college  is  for 
the  masses  and  that  it  must  be  within  the  possibility  of  any 
normal  person  to  enter  and  do  work  in  it. 

6.  Relation  of  people's  college  to  junior  high  schools 
outside  cities.  The  California  Legislature  has  set  the  mini- 
mum limit  of  taxable  property  of  a  district  maintaining  a 
junior  college  at  $3,000,000  assessed  valuation.  This  would 
mean  a  city  of  not  less  than  5,000  population.  Such  a  city 
would  probably  have  twelve  hundred  pupils  distributed  as 


THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

follows :  Grades- 1  to  6,  inclusive,  600  pupils ;  grades  7  to  10, 
inclusive,  300  pupils ;  grades  1 1  to  14,  inclusive,  300  pupils. 
Such  a  city  would,  if  compact,  maintain  one  collegiate  school 
and  only  one  junior  high  school.  The  rule  seems  to  be  a 
reasonable  one,  for  a  people's  college  could  scarcely  succeed 
with  fewer  than  300  students  and  15  teachers. 

What  shall  be  done  in  cities  of  fewer  than  5,000  people? 
Let  us  consider  several  classes  of  such  communities  in  an 
attempt  to  work  out  approximately  accurate  plans. 

(a)  Towns  of  2,000  to  5,000  surrounded  by  well  settled 
rural  districts :    Such  a  community  should  organize  a  union 
collegiate  school  district  for  the  maintenance  of  one  such 
higher  secondary  school.     The  town  itself  would  have  a 
junior  high  school  to  which  pupils  living  outside  the  limits 
might  come.     Or,  if  there  were  in  the  union  district  one 
village  of,  say  500  people,  such  village  should  form  the  cen- 
ter for  a  union  junior  high  school  district.    In  any  case  the 
people's  college  would  probably  be  governed  by  a  different 
board  of  education,  and  there  would    arise    problems    of 
adjustment  distinct  from  the  city's. 

(b)  Towns  of  2,000  to  5,000  not  surrounded  by   well 
settled  rural  districts :     Such  a  town  could  not  profitably 
maintain  a  full  people's  college,  but  would  best  maintain  in 
one  building  a  junior  and  senior  high  school.     In  such  an 
institution  the  problems  would  not  differ  materially  from  the 
existing  high  school  problems ;  it  would  simply  be  a  five- 
year  instead  of  a  four-year  secondary  school.     In  certain 
lines  it  might  be  more  vocational  than  our  present-day  high 
schools.     The  town  should  provide  for  the  support  of  its 
graduates  through  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  grades  of 
somje  county  people's   college   or  at  a   privately   endowed 
college. 


RELATION   TO   SENIOR   HIGH    AND   JUNIOR  COLLEGE     1/9 

(c)  In  towns  of  500  to  2,000  surrounded  by  a  thickly 
populated  rural  district,  the  same  arrangements  as  those 
described  in  (b)  might  be  secured.     If  such  a  town  were 
within  the  shadow  of  a  larger  town,  the  smaller  -would  be 
better  served  to  unite  in  a  union  college  district  with  the 
larger,  at  the  same  time  maintaining  a  junior  high  school 
of  its  own. 

(d)  Towns  of  500  to  2,000,  not  surrounded  by  a  thickly 
populated  rural  community,  would  be  wisest  to  maintain  a 
first-class  junior  high  school,  and  maintain  its  graduates  at 
some  county  collegiate  school  where  board  and  room  could 
be  partly  worked  out  by  the  student  on  the  college  farm. 

(e)  Communities  smaller  than  500  should  attach  them- 
selves to  a  near-by  larger  town  in  a  union  college  district  or 
union  junior  high  school  district. 

(f)  A  comfmunity  smaller  than  500  people  and  standing 
alone  should  maintain  a  good  elementary  school,   and  if 
sufficient  funds  exist  the  two  first  years  of  a  junior  high 
school.     Such  a  community  would  not  have  more  than  100 
pupils,  twenty  of  whom  would  be  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades.     It  could  then  have  one  teacher's  full  time  for  the 
junior  high  school. 

In  discussing  the  relation  of  the  people's  'college  to  the 
junior  high  school,  only  communities  described  under  (a), 
(c),  and  (e)  need  be  considered;  and  these  all  have  the 
same  problem.  That  problem  arises  over  the  fact  that  the 
two  schools  are  under  different  boards  of  education.  Greater 
tact  and  larger  educational  perspective  must,  under  such  con- 
ditions, be  required  of  the  dean  of  the  /college  and  of  the 
principal  of  the  junior  high  school.  Certain  definite  rules 
would  have  to  be  laid  down  and  adhered  to  in  good, faith  by 
both  heads  and  by  both  boards.  Lacking  a  district  superin- 
tendent, the  county  superintendent  should  wisely,  tactfully, 


l8o  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

and  with  clear  educational  ideas  exercise  supervisory  and 
conciliatory  jurisdiction  over  the  relations  of  the  two 
schools. 

It  would  be  wise  and  proper  for  the  dean  to  take  tihe 
initiative  in  a  case  of  this  kind  and  work  out  rules  and 
regulations  with  the  principals  of  the  lower  schools.  If  he 
does  not  take  the  initiative  the  county  superintendent  or 
one  of  the  junior  high  school  principals  should  take  the 
initiative.  There  should  be  no  misunderstanding  of  the  pur- 
pose of  secondary  education,  the  raison  d'etre  of  a  junior 
high  school  and  of  a  people's  college.  It  should  be  clearly 
seen  that  each  school  has  a  definite  problem  to  solve,  and 
the  other  school  should  co-operate  to  assist  in  making  the 
solution  easy  and  successful. 


CHAPTER 

AN  IDEAL  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

We  propose  in  this  chapter  to  outline  the  conditions  neces- 
sary to  the  institution  and  conduct  of  an  ideal  junior  high 
school. 

1 .  The  city.  We  have  shown  in  a  previous  chapter  that 
a  district  must  contain  a  certain  number  of  inhabitants,  chil- 
dren, and  wealth,  or  be  surrounded  by  rural  communities 
that  make  up  the  deficit.  It  is  best  that  the  city  be  compact 
so  that  no  pupil  will  have  more  tfhan  a  mile  to  walk  to 
school.  The  ideal  would  be  a  population  of  at  least  5,000,  or 
in  a  larger  city  a  population  of  at  least  5,000  to  8,000  to  each 
144  blocks.  A  square  twelve  blocks  by  twelve  blocks  with 
the  school  building  at  its  centre  would  be  the  proper  condi- 
tion as  to  size  and  population.  Cities  with  a  scattered  popu- 
lation would  have  to  provide  transportation  for  their  pupils. 
The  school  population  of  such  a  square  should  be  from  1,200 
to  i, 800,  and  the  number  of  children  from  12  to  15  years  of 
age  would  be  from  300  to  400. 

The  city  should  have  an  assessed  valuation  of  at  least 
$5,000,000  to  each  junior  high  school  maintained.  If  taxed 
to  support  such  a  school,  a  twenty-cent  rate  would  produce 
a  sufficient  revenue.  If  the  $5,000,000  valuation  is  spread 
evenly  over  the  entire  square,  each  block  will  be  valued  at 
$35,000 — houses  and  lots.  This  will  mean  a  good  class  of 
houses  with  excellent  improvements.  In  a  large  city  many 
squares  would  not  have  such  a  large  valuation;  but  the 
extremely  high  value  of  business  and  industrial  property 
would  bring  up  the  average  for  the  entire  city. 

T!he  people  of  the  city  must  not  only  be  prosperous  with 
reasonably  large  families,  but  they  must  be  public  spirited 

181 


l82  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

and  progressive.  They  must  take  an  interest  in  the  public 
weal,  especially  in  the  education  of  their  children  and  the 
children  of  the  whole  community,  yes,  and  in  the  children 
of  the  future  generation  as  well.  They  must  put  the  educa- 
tion of  their  children  above  their  own  selfish  comforts.  They 
must  try  to  understand  what  the  schools  are  doing,  and  then 
fall  in  line  and  boost.  They  must  believe  that  society  is 
evolutionary,  and  that  it  is  their  duty  to  assist  in  progressive 
movements.  Finally,  they  must  be  willing  not  only  to  talk 
and  vote  for  progressive  movements  in  education,  but  also 
to  pay  taxes — and  to  contribute  in  reasonable  amounts  for 
their  children's  good. 

2.  The  board  of  education.  With  such  people,  it  may 
be  assumed  that  the  city  will  elect  to  the  board  of  education 
men  and  worrten  of  high  purpose  and  good  judgment.  The 
members  should  themselves  be  public-spirited  and  willing 
to  devote  a  reasonable  amount  of  time  and  much  deep 
thought  to  school  problems.  Each  member  should  feel  his 
responsibility  to  the  whole  city,  but  especially  to  the  welfare 
of  all  the  children  and  to  the  future  of  society,  for  within 
their  keeping  is  the  strongest  social  force  in  America.  The 
board  is  a  legislative,  not  an  administrative  body;  conse- 
quently, a  board  of  fifteen  members  meeting  two  to  four 
times  each  year  is  better  than  a  three-member  board  meeting 
every  week.  The  people  do  not  expect  an  unpaid  board 
member  to  devote  any  considerable  part  of  his  time  to 
school  affairs.  A  large  board  will  furnish  a  wider  opinion 
and  more  diversified  views  than  a  small  one. 

The  board's  organization  should  be  simple  so  that  busi- 
ness may  be  done  by  the  board  en  bane  rather  than  by  com- 
mittees. It  should  employ  experts  and  administrators  to  fur- 
nish data  to  guide  it  in  its  deliberations  and  to  carry  out  its 
decrees.  A  president  and  a  secretary  will  be  necessary,  but 


AN  IDEAL  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  183 

further  organization  will  complicate  rather  than  simplify  the 
transaction  of  business.  A  board  has  authority  only  en  bane. 
An  individual  member  or  a  committee  has  no  legal  authority, 
and  cannot  of  course  transact  business  for  the  district. 

The  board  should  be  composite,  some  members  conserva- 
tive, others  liberal,  some  judiciously  careful,  others  con- 
structively original,  but  all  fair-minded  and  progressive.  The 
board  should  not  fear  an  idea  or  plan  because  it  is  new  or 
unique.  By  their  attitude  toward  all  questions,  they  should 
inspire  the  superintendent  to  original  thinking  and  wide  in- 
vestigation. They  should  expect,  yes  require,  him  to  keep 
informed  on  educational  movements  everywhere;  and  not 
come  before  them  with  a  suggestion  until  he  can  give  the 
board  considerable,  if  not  complete,  data  upon  which  to  base 
a  judgment  and  to  determine  action.  With  this  correct  and 
sympathetic  attitude  toward  their  chief  employee,  they  can 
reasonably  expect  that  he  will  be  frank  with  them  and  will 
respect  their  judgment  and  abide  by  their  decisions. 

3.  The  superintendent.  As  the  chief  administrative 
officer  of  the  board,  the  superintendent  should  keep  within 
his  sphere  of  activity.  He  has  no  legislative  functions, 
except  as  they  are  within  the  limits  delegated  to  him  by  the 
board  of  education.  He  should  always  bear  in  mind  that  he 
is  directly  responsible  to  the  board,  and  that  he  cannot  rise 
above  the  source  of  his  authority.  Nevertheless,  he  has 
large  discretionary  powers  and  within  certain  limits  is 
supreme.  He  should  have  a  discriminating  judgment  keen 
enough  to  determine  what  are  policies  and  what  are  discre- 
tionary powers.  He  is  the  chief  adviser  to  the  board.  This 
should  sober  him  and  make  him  open  and  full  in  advising  it 
on  all  matters.  He  should  from  the  beginning  of  his  employ- 
ment map  out  a  plan  of  relationship  between  himself  and  the 
board  and  should  ask  that  the  board  definitely  adopt  the  plan. 


I&4  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Thereafter  he  should  be  careful  to  live  up  to  the  full  letter 
and  spirit  of  the  plan.  That  plan  should  provide  that  he  be 
the  ultimate  authority  in  matters  pertaining  to  supervision  of 
teaching,  nomination  of  teachers,  and  making  of  the 
curricula. 

The  superintendent  should  have  a  profound  interest  in  the 
education  of  adolescents;  he  should  feel,  if  the  individuals 
composing  society  are  to  be  advanced  in  civilization  and  in 
physical  and  mental  perfection,  that  advance  must  be  secured 
by  properly  educating  adolescents.  He  must  have  a  deep 
understanding  of  the  physiology  and  psychology  of  adoles- 
cence, and  be  acquainted  with  the  wisest  plans  and  methods 
of  educating  girls  and  boys  in  this  all-important  period  of 
their  lives.  To  make  the  junior  high  school  function  as  it 
should,  the  superintendent  must  appreciate  deeply  its  signifi- 
cance, do  all  in  his  power  to  make  the  conditions  for  its 
best  work  possible,  and  take  an  active,  personal  interest  in  its 
proper  functioning. 

In  building  the  curricula  for  the  entire  school  system,  he 
should  see  every  part  in  its  relation  to  all  others,  and  should 
put  proper  relative  values  on  the  various  parts.  The  curri- 
culum should  be  fitted  to  the  needs  and  to  the  natures  of  the 
children — not  upon  the  needs  or  nature,  but  upon  both.  In 
it  the  period  of  adolescence  should  have  special  attention, 
for  here  more  than  anywhere  else  the  course-makers  can 
most  easily  go  astray  or  utterly  fail  to  make  education  fit 
the  conditions.  Unfortunately  there  are  as  yet  few  books 
on  the  subject  of  adolescence  that  deal  with  it  in  a  scientific, 
empirical  way.  We  need  far  more  measurements,  surveys, 
statistical  information,  and  unbiased  digests  of  these  data. 
No  superintendent  has  a  right,  however,  to  fail  to  familiar- 
ize himself  with  all  that  has  already  been  written.  The  curri- 


AN    IDEAL   JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL  185 

culum  must  embody  all  the  latest  and  best  information 
obtainable. 

4.  The  grounds.  The  site  for  the  junior  high  school 
should  be  in  the  centre  of  the  square  from  which  the  school 
draws  its  pupils.  Five  acres  is  the  minimum  amount  of 
ground,  the  buildings  themselves  occupying  two  acres,  the 
athletic  fields  two  more  acres,  while  one  acre  should  be  used 
for  gardens  and  agricultural  experimentation. 

The  kind  and  placement  of  buildings  are  matters  that  will 
vary  according  to  the  conditions  of  the  community  and  the 
ideals  of  those  in  authority.  One  plan  is  to  have  one  large 
central  building  containing  twenty  or  more  rooms,  the  prin- 
cipal's offices,  and  other  necessary  rooms.  Smaller,  but 
suitable  buildings  will  occupy  flanking  positions,  designed 
to  add  to  the  beauty  of  the  whole  scheme.  One  such  build- 
ing would  be  devoted  entirely  to  an  assembly  hall ;  another 
would  house  the  manual  training  shops,  and  cooking  and 
sewing  rooms ;  a  third  would  contain  the  science  laboratories, 
propagating  rooms,  museums,  junior  chambers  of  com- 
merce ;  while  a  fourth  might  house  the  library,  reading  room, 
art  gallery  and  workshop,  and  the  music  conservatory.  The 
arrangement  and  connecting  of  these  buildings  will  be  a 
matter  of  taste.  A  beautiful  effect  is  secured  by  connecting 
them  by  artistic  arcades.  Plenty  of  lawn,  some  shrubbery, 
and  clusters  of  trees  here  and  there,  add  greatly  to  the 
beauty  of  the  plan. 

Athletic  fields  should  be  provided  for  football,  baseball, 
track,  tennis,  basketball,  handball  courts,  and  other  games. 
Two  acres  will  not  give  more  than  enough  room  for  these 
activities,  and  in  all  probability  some  of  these  sports  will 
have  to  alternate  in  the  use  of  the  grounds.  This  is  possible 
with  football,  track  and  baseball.  The  acre-farm  should  be 
so  located  as  to  display  to  the  public  the  work  being  done, 


l86  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

and  to  get  best  results.  It  should  be  in  the  open  sun  and 
some  distance  from  the  groups  of  trees.  Gardens  and 
athletic  courts  should  be  protected  by  mesh-wire  fences  from 
careless  marauders. 

5.  The  pupils.  A  junior  high  school  cannot  do  its  best 
work  with  fewer  than  three  hundred  pupils  or  more  than 
eight  hundred  pupils.  The  ideal  is  four  hundred.  This  per- 
mits individuality,  acquaintanceship  with  each  other,  close 
kinship  of  interests;  it  is  also  numerous  enough  to  allow 
diversified  courses,  election  of  studies,  a  feeling  of  the  big- 
ness and  importance  of  the  school.  Such  a  school  could  find 
in  its  number  good  material  in  sufficient  numbers  to  carry  on 
all  school  "activities." 

Drawn  from  the  same  neighborhood,  such  a  group  would 
and  should  be  homogeneous  in  character  and  in  age.  Wide 
variation  in  age  does  not  make  for  the  welfare  of  the  school 
or  permit  the  highest  self-expression  of  the  student  body. 
The  social  standing  and  financial  means  of  such  a  group 
would  be  fairly  uniform.  The  physical  development  of  the 
members  of  each  class  should  also  be  fairly  uniform,  and  the 
wise  principal  will  so  assign  classes  as  to  group  in  each  class 
pupils  of  the  same  stage  of  adolescence.  The  mental  develop- 
ment and  the  educational  background  of  the  pupils  should  be 
as  far  as  possible  homogeneous. 

The  spirit  of  the  pupils  should  be  ambitious,  loyal,  altru- 
istic, tractable.  Ambition  for  themselves  individually,  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  liking  school,  determination  to  secure  am 
education,  and  willingness  to  endure  petty  discomforts — 
this  and  ambition  for  the  school  are  indispensable  to  a  suc- 
cessful junior  high  school.  The  pupils  must  be  loyal  to  the 
school,  and  willing  to  work  hard  and  restrain  their  bad  ten- 
dencies in  order  to  build  up  the  reputation  of  the  school. 
Each  pupil  must  have  considerable  altruism,  and  be  willing 


AN    IDEAI,   JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL  l8/ 

to  help  his  feljow-students  in  all  right  lines.  Pupils  must 
be  tractable — willing  to  listen  to  reason  and  to  follow  the 
best  judgment  of  principal  and  teachers.  This  does  not 
mean  a  lowly  spirit,  or  blind  obedience.  That  would  not  be 
desirable  even  if  it  could  be  secured  in  a  group  of  early  ado- 
lescent boys  and  girls. 

6.  The  buildings.  We  have  spoken  of  the  number  and 
arrangement  of  the  buildings.  They  should  be  of  modern 
construction,  fire-proof  throughout,  not  over  two  stories  in 
height.  A  basement  for  furnace  rooms,  store-rooms,  toilets, 
etc.,  may  be  constructed,  but  it  is  far  better  to  have  these 
on  the  same  floor  with  the  school  rooms.  Space  may  be 
saved  and  convenience  obtained  by  building  the  stairways 
on  the  outside  of  the  building  instead  of  fire-escapes,  and 
covered  artistically  by  porch  roofs,  A  play-room  or  gym- 
nasium may  occupy  a  separate  building,  or  in  case  of  lack 
of  space  may  be  on  the  roof  of  the  main  building.  In  the 
latter  case  the  roof  should  be  constructed  of  material  that 
will  deaden  the  sound. 

The  school  rooms  will  be  of  sufficient  size,  well  ventilated 
and  lighted,  and  sufficient  in  number.  The  principal's  offices 
should  be  commodious  enough  for  the  work  to  be  done, 
there  being  a  private  office  with  an  exit  directly  into  the 
hall.  It  ought  not  to  be  necessary  for  the  principal  to  send 
a  reprimanded  pupil  back  through  a  waiting  room  where 
other  pupils  may  be  gathered.  Eiach  teacher  should  have 
access  to  a  consultation  room  near  to  his  regular  recitation 
room.  Study-halls,  libraries,  laboratories,  gymnasiums, 
swimming  pools,  teachers'  rest  rooms,  model  housekeeping 
rooms,  hospital  wards,  dressing  rooms,  music  rooms,  mfu- 
seums  and  art  galleries  should  be  provided  of  suitable  size 
and  convenience.  Classes  should  be  so  arranged  as  to  re- 
duce to  a  minimum  the  climbing  of  stairs  by  girls,  especially 


l88  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

the  older  girls.  The  rooms  should  be  provided  with  all 
accessories  of  teaching. 

7.  Accessories  of  teaching.  The  accessories  of  teach- 
ing should  be  provided  liberally,  but  not  lavishly.  Each 
room  should  be  provided  with  a  good  teacher's  desk  with 
several  drawers,  an  office  chair  for  the  teacher  and  at  least 
three  chairs  for  visitors,  a  good  blackboard  of  at  least  eighty 
linear  feet  of  slate  or  hyloplate,  black,  green,  or  brown.  The 
lighting  should  be  arranged  scientifically.  Movable  desks 
should  be  provided  in  sufficient  number  for  the  largest  class, 
each  desk  equipped  with  a  drawer  for  books,  either  adjust- 
able to  size  of  pupil  or  several  sizes  provided  for  each  room. 
Books,  paper,  pencils,  pens,  and  ink  in  sufficient  quantities 
and  of  satisfactory  quality  should  be  supplied. 

There  should  be  special  rooms  adapted  to  the  particular 
subject  taught.  The  English  room  should  be  equipped  with 
shelves  and  cases  for  books  and  with  racks  for  the  filing  of 
student's  compositions.  The  commercial  roomi  should  be 
provided  with  counters,  banking  cribs,  typewriters,  book- 
keeping desks  and  adding  machines.  The  geography  and 
history  room  must  have  maps,  globes,  charts,  and  cases  for 
geological  specimens,  papers,  ethnologic  material,  and  histor- 
ical relics.  The  gymnasium  will  be  well  supplied  with  dumb- 
bells, Indian  clubs,  trapezes,  exercisers,  wrestling  mats,  box- 
ing gloves,  and  other  necessary  apparatus. 

The  library  should  be  well  supplied  with  carefully  selected 
books,  magazines,  pamphlets  and  newspapers.  Either  each 
junior  high  school  should  have  a  librarian  or  there  should  be 
a  school  librarian  whose  sole  business  it  is  to  buy  books  for 
the  several  junior  high  schools.  It  is  better  to  provide  a 
number  of  copies  of  one  excellent  reference  book  than  a 
variety  of  indifferently  good  books.  Before  purchasing  a 
book  the  librarian  should  be  sure  that  the  teacher  and  pupils 


AN    IDEAL   JUNIOR    HIGH    SCHOOL  189 

will  use  it.  Teachers  are  only  too  prone  to  request  books 
that  they  know  little  about  and  that  they  will  not  find  avail- 
able for  their  use  after  purchased.  It  might  be  desirable  to 
insist  upon  each  teacher's  showing  how  he  is  going  to  use  a 
book  requested  before  buying  it.  The  library  should  be 
accessible  to  all  pupils  of  the  school  as  soon  as  they  learn 
how  to  use  library  books.  The  budget  should  provide  at 
least  $500  per  year  for  each  junior  high  school  library. 

The  laboratories  should  be  furnished  and  equipped  with 
great  care.  There  should  be  tables  for  the  pupil's  use,  pro- 
vided with  drawers,  a  proper  composition  top,  and  individual 
laboratory  instruments.  Of  course  gas  must  be  piped  to  the 
tables,  and  bunsen  burners  provided.  Science  supplies  in 
reasonable  quantities  may  be  doled  out  from  a  central  store- 
room, or  kept  on  hand  in  the  locked  cases  of  the  teacher.  A 
lath-house  for  the  propagation  of  plants  is  an  indispensable 
accessory  to  the  teaching  of  elementary  agriculture.  The 
acre-farm  is,  however,  the  best  laboratory  for  the  teaching  of 
the  elements  of  farming.  For  it  water  for  irrigating  must  be 
piped  to  the  land,  fertilizer  must  be  purchased  in  sufficient 
amounts,  and  farm  implements  of  various  kinds  for  actual 
use  and  for  demonstration  need  to  be  bought  or  rented. 

8.  The  faculty.  The  principal  should  be  a  man  of  con- 
siderable experience,  a  lover  of  youth  in  all  its  manifesta- 
tions, and  an  educator  of  large  vision  and  executive  ability. 
He  must  be  able  to  grasp  large  principles  and  translate  them 
into  the  details  of  everyday  school  life.  He  must  see  whither 
the  plan  leads  and  the  way  whereby  the  end  is  to  be  reached. 
He  must  not  have  his  eyes  so  riveted  on  the  goal  that  he 
does  not  see  the  crooks  and  turns  of  the  road ;  nor  must  he 
fix  his  gaze  so  intently  upon  the  road  that  he  forgets  the 
glorious  result  to  be  accomplished.  But  he  must  see  all,  feel 
all,  know  all. 


IQO  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL, 

The  teachers  are  of  varied  personality,  but  all  must  love 
and  appreciate  children.  They  should  not  be  so  far  from 
adolescence  that  they  have  forgotten  their  own  personal  ex- 
periences, nor  be  so  close  to  it  that  they  have  no  perspective 
and  cannot  see  that  adulthood  will  inevitably  follow  normal 
development.  They  must  be  teachers  of  children ;  and,  not 
neglecting  the  subject-matter  and  the  problems,  they  will 
yet  devote  every  effort  to  educating  the  pupils.  Physical, 
mental  and  moral  strength  is  the  thing  to  be  aimed  at;  the 
means  are  study,  work,  habits,  knowledge,  exercise,  play, 
good  will,  interest,  attention,  concentration,  English,  history 
and  the  whole  category  of  subjects.  The  teachers  must 
know  themselves  how  to  work  and  be  able  to  teach  their 
pupils  how  to  work.  They  must  'be  physical,  miental  and 
moral  examplars,  and  full  of  the  milk  of  human  kindness. 

The  principal  and  teachers  compose  the  faculty  of  the 
school.  As  they  work  hand-in-glove  with  perfect  correlation 
toward  the  big  goal  of  education,  so  will  the  school  succeed. 
The  faculty  is  unquestionably  the  most  important  of  all  the 
conditions  of  an  ideal  junior  high  school.  Lacking  an  ideal 
faculty,  the  school  falls  short,  the  result  is  mediocre,  the 
boys  and  girls  fail  of  high  attainment,  society  is  not  ad- 
vanced. Lacking  ideal  conditions  in  all  the  other  points  we 
have  considered,  but  having  an  ideal  faculty,  there  is  jrtill 
much  hope.  An  heroic  group  of  teachers  captained  by  a 
capable  principal  may  win  the  battle  with  all  other  conditions 
falling  far  short  of  the  ideal. 

There  must  be  a  sufficient  number  of  teachers  to  carry 
on  a  program  such  as  we  have  described  in  Chapter  Nine.  A 
teacher  should  not  be  expected  to  teach  more  than  six 
periods,  or  make  more  than  three  preparations  per  day.  The 
principal  should  not  be  expected  to  teach  at  all,  but  he  may 
elect  to  teach  not  more  than  two  periods  per  day.  Clerical 


AN   IDEAL   JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL  IQI 

assistance  must  be  furnished;  a  good  janitor  provided — one 
who  understands  his  plant,  its  perfect  operation ;  a  libra- 
rian or  the  equivalent  employed;  and  proper  supervisors 
assigned,  who  will  actually  assist,  not  hinder,  the  teachers  in 
getting  the  best  results. 

9.  Conclusion:  results.  With  ideal  but  perfectly 
realizable  conditions,  the  junior  high  school — which  will 
probably  be  the  high  school  of  the  future — should  accom- 
plish very  definite  results,  results  that  are  the  aim  and  pur- 
pose of  the  institution.  Let  us  summarize  these  results  in 
concluding  this  discussion  of  early  adolescent  education. 

(a)  The  junior  high  school  operates  to  prevent  boys  and 
girls  from  dropping  out  of  school.    This  is  a  result  of  great 
value  to  the  individual  that  is  held  in  school,  but  is  also 
of  great  economic,  civic,  cultural,  and  social  value  to  the 
community. 

(b)  By  means  of  the  junior  high  school  pupils'  aptitudes 
and  talents  will  be  discovered  and  the  pupils  will  be  guided 
to  take  proper  courses  in  school  that  will  prepare  them  for 
the  vocation  for  which  they  are  best  fitted.     This  should 
make  it  possible  for  a  young  man  to  enter  his  life  career  at 
once  upon  graduating  from  school.     He  will  be  spared  the 
waste  of  time  and  the  bitter  experience  now  required  in  look- 
ing for  a  position.    The  employers,  too,  will  be  benefited  in 
that  they  will  be  able  to  secure  the  very  best  boys  for  their 
employment  without  the  waste  of  trying  out  and  dismissing 
several  persons  before  the  right  one  is  secured.    The  world 
will  be  happier  and  more  efficient  because  everyone  will  be 
working  at  the  job  he  likes  best  and  can  do  best. 

(c)  Pupils  will  be  saved  at  least  one  year  of  time  in 
securing  their  education.    This  will  not  only  be  an  economic 
gain  to  the  individual,  but  will  be  a  social  gain  in  that  men 
will  have  at  least  one  year  longer  in  which  they  will  be  com- 


192  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

munity  supporting.  Take  a  community  that  is  being  sup- 
ported by  1,000  men  workers,  whose  average  length  of  time 
in  which  they  contribute  to  the  support  of  others — family, 
relatives,  the  poor,  churches,  other  social  agencies — is 
twenty  years.  Those  1,000  men  will  hereafter  have  twenty- 
one  years  in  which  to  earn  what  they  now  have  to  earn  in 
twenty  years.  If  applied  in  days'  work  per  year,  it  would 
result  as  follows :  Supposing  that  the  average  man  works 
300  days  per  year  at  present,  hereafter  he  would  have  to 
work  only  285.  Counting  out  the  52  Sundays,  it  would  give 
each  man  a  twenty-eight-day  vacation  instead  of  a  thirteen- 
day  vacation.  Or,  if  the  men  continued  to  work  the  same 
number  of  days  as  before,  the  community  could  be  sup- 
ported on  a  higher  plane  than  at  present. 

(d)  Pupils  are  given  the  right  kind  of  education — train- 
ing that  is  adapted  to  the  period  of  adolescence.  We  may 
look  for  the  results  of  this  right  kind  of  education  in  im- 
proved health,  physique,  mentality  and  morality.  While  this 
effect  will  be  immediate  and  easily  perceptible,  the  effect 
will  be  cumulative  and  eternal.  The  future  generations  born 
of  physically  and  mentally  fit  parents  will  rise  quite  per- 
ceptibly above  our  own  generation.  We  may  look  for  heredi- 
tary as  well  as  immediate  benefits. 

Civic,  altruistic,  vocational,  religious,  cultural,  scientific, 
sense  education  at  this  plastic  and  evolutionary  period  can 
but  result  in  better  government,  in  social  improvement,  in 
economic  efficiency,  in  deeper  religion,  in  greater  happiness, 
in  further  advancement  in  inventions,  comforts,  disease-pre- 
vention, and  in  bodily  development. 

All  of  these  results  are  to  be  brought  about  not  by  the 
junior  high  school  single-handed.  There  is  at  present  a 
general  progressive  movement  in  education  of  which  early 
adolescent  training  forms  a  vital  and  central  part.  Occupa- 


AN    IDEAL  JUNIOR    HIGH    SCHOOL  IQ3 

tional  training,  vocational  guidance,  the  junior  college, 
teaching  how  to  study  and  work,  elimination  of  non-essen- 
tials, extension  of  kindergarten  methods  into  the  grades, 
sense  education,  new  ideas  of  buildings,  better  administra- 
tive management  of  schools — all  these  are  playing  their 
parts  along  with  the  junior  high  school. 

In  treating  the  theme  of  this  book,  we  have  tried  to  give 
due  credit  to  those  other  movements  and  show  how  they  are 
related  to  early  adolescent  education.  Educators  are  pretty 
well  agreed,  however,  that  the  success  of  the  whole  scheme 
cannot  be  fully  realized  without  careful  attention  to  the 
period  of  adolescence,  the  best  device  being  an  institution 
organized  on  the  plan  described  in  the  foregoing  pages  under 
the  name  of  the  junior  high  school. 


APPENDIX 

JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  COURSES  OF  STUDY 

LOS  ANGEXES 
A.     General  Course. 

First  Year  of  Course. 

Required  Subjects. 

English    5 

Arithmetic    5 

History   (i/2  yr.) 2% 

Geography  (%  yr.) 2% 

Physical  Training I 

Music 2 

Drawing  2 

Penmanship   2 

Man.  Tr.  or  Dom.  Science 4 

One  elective 5 

French   5 

German 5 

Spanish 5 

Latin  5 

Bookkeeping   5 

Stenography    5 

Total   31 

Second  Year  of  Course. 
Required  Subjects. 

English  5 

History-Civics    5 

Physical  Training 2 

Oral  English  (%  yr.) I 

Music  (%  yr.) I 

195 


196  THE   JUNIOR   HIGH    SCHOOL 

Phys.  and  Hygiene 2 

Man.  Tr.  or  Dom.  Science 4 

Two  electives 10 

Same  as  ist  yr 5 

Algebra 5 

Drawing  5 

Total   30 

Third  Year  of  Course. 

Required  Subjects. 

English 5 

Physical  Training 2 

Music  or  Oral  English 2 

Three  electives 15 

Same  as  2d  yr 5 

Com'l   Arithmetic 5 

Ancient  History 5 

General  Science 5 

One  other  elective 5 

Cooking  5 

Sewing > 5 

Woodwork  5 

Drawing   5 

Total   29 

B.     Commercial  Course. 

First  Year  of  Course. 

Differs  from  General  Course  in  that  Book- 
keeping— 5,  and  Stenography — 5,  are  required 
and  take  the  place  of  Music — 2,  Drawing — 2, 
and  Manual  Training — 4. 


APPENDIX  197 

Second  Year  of  Course. 

Differs  from  General  Course  in  that  Book- 
keeping— 5,  Stenography — 5,  and  Penmanship 
— 2,  are  required  and  take  place  of  Manual 
Training — 4,  Music — I,  Oral  English — I,  and 
one  elective — 5. 

Third  Year  of  Course. 
Required  Subjects. 

English   5 

Commercial  Arithmetic 5 

Bookkeeping  5 

Stenography    5 

'Physical  Training 2 

Two  electives 10 

Same  list  as  General 

Total   32 

C.     Vocational  Course. 

Very  similar  to  General  Course,  except  that  in 
the  second  and  third  years  ten  hours  of  woodwork 
or  cooking-sewing  are  required. 

CINCINNATI 
A.     Industrial  Arts  Course. 

Seventh  Year  Hours 

Physical  Training  and  Hygiene 5 

English  3 

History  and  Civics 3 

Music I 

Shopwork  and  Mech.  Drawing 10 

General  Science 3 


198  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Mathematics    4 

Freehand  Drawing I 

Total   30 

Eighth  Year. 

Physical  Training  and  Hygiene 5 

English  3 

History  and  Civics 3 

Music    i 

Shopwork  and  Mech.  Dr 10 

General  Science 3 

Mathematics   4 

Freehand  Drawing I 

Total   30 

Ninth  Year. 

Physical  Training  and  Hygiene 5 

English  3 

History  and  Civics 2 

Music    I 

Physics    3 

Algebra    3 

Economics  and  Ind.  Relations 2 

Freehand  Drawing I 

Shopwork  and  Draughting 10 

Total   30 

B.     Commercial  Course. 
Seventh  Year. 

Physical  Training  and  Hygiene 5 

English  3 

Civics   .  .  I 


APPENDIX  199 

Music    I 

History  of  Commerce  and  Industry. .  4 

Geography    3 

Mathematics    5 

Printing-  and  Bookbinding 2 

Drawing   2 

Penmanship,  Corresp.  Prac 2 

Salesmanship   2 

Total   30 

Eighth  Year. 

Physical  Training  and  Hygiene 5 

English   3 

Civics    I 

Music    i 

United  States  History 2 

Biography  of  Great  Americans I 

Lib.  Read,  in  Mod.  Commerce I 

U.  S.  Geography 3 

Mathematics    5 

Engraving  and  Allied  Arts 2 

Artistic  Lettering 2 

Advertising  2 

Pen.  Corres.  Practice 2 

Total  30 

Ninth  Year. 

Physical  Training  and  Hygiene 5 

English   3 

Music    I 

Art  Appreciation I 


200  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Economic  Geography  of  U.  S 3 

Commercial  Vocations 3 

Office  Methods I 

Bookkeeping  and  Penmanship 10 

Business    Forms I 

Elementary  Economics 2 

Total   30 

HOUSTON 

A.     General  Course. 
First  Year. 

Required:    Regular  seventh  grade  subjects. 
Elective :    Latin,  German,  Spanish  or  Algebra. 

Second  Year. 
Required :    English. 

Elective:  Three  of  the  following,  depending 
upon  college  requirements,  etc. :  Ancient 
History,  Algebra,  Latin,  Spanish,  German, 
Physiography,  Physiology  and  Hygienics, 
Manual  Training,  Domestic  Science,  Com. 
English. 

Third  Year. 
Required :    English. 

Elective:  Three  of  the  following,  depending 
upon  college  entrance  requirements,  voca- 
tional needs,  etc.:  Med.  and  Modern  His- 
tory, Algebra,  Latin,  Spanish,  German, 
Biology,  Typewriting  and  Shorthand,  Man- 
ual Training,  Domestic  Science. 


APPENDIX  201 

B.     Commercial  Course. 
First  Year. 

Same  as  in  General  Course. 
Second  Year. 

Required:     English,  Com.  Eng.,  a  Language. 
Two   electives:     Algebra,    Science,    History, 

Man.  Training,  Domestic  Science. 
Third  Year. 

Required :    English,  a  foreign  language,  Sten- 
ography and  Typewriting. 
One  elective :  Algebra,  Science,  History,  Man- 
ual Training,  Domestic  Science. 

DETROIT 

A.    English  Course. 

First  Year. 

English   5 

Literature 5 

Mathematics    5 

History   5 

Physical  Education 2 

Music  2 

Drawing  2 

Man.  Tr.  or  Dom.  Sci.  and  Dom.  Art  4 

Second  Year. 

English   5 

Literature  5 

Mathematics    5 

History  8-B  and  Gen.  Geog.  8-A 5 

Physical  Education 2 

Music 2 

Drawing  2 

Man.  Tr.  or  Dom.  Sci.  and  Dom.  Art  4 


2O2  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Third  Year. 

English   5 

Literature  5 

Mathematics    5 

Man.  Tr.  or  Dom.  Sci.  and  Dom.  Art  4 

Physical  Education 2 

Elect  One: 

Ancient   History 5 

Physiography 5 

Drawing  5 

Music 2 — 7 

B.     Commercial  Course. 

First  Year. 

English   5 

Literature  5 

History   § 

Mathematics    5 

Physical  Education 2 

Music  2 

Drawing  2 

Man.  Tr.  or  Dom.  Sci.  and  Art 4 

Second  Year. 

English   5 

History  8-B  and  Gen.  Geog.  8-A 5 

Bookkeeping  5 

Physical  Education 2 

Music  2 

Typewriting 5 

Com'l    Arithmetic 3 

Pen.  and  Spelling 2 — § 

Elect  One: 

Literature  5 

Man.  Tr.  or  Dom.  Sci.  and  Dom.  Art  4 


APPENDIX  2O3 

Third  Year. 

English   5 

Bookkeeping  10 

Typewriting 5 

Physical  Education 2 

Elect  Two: 

Literature  5 

Shorthand   5 

Algebra    5 

Man.  Tr.  or  Dom.  Sci.  and  Art...  4 
C.     Industrial  Course. 

First  Year. 

English   5 

Mathematics    5 

History   5 

Man.  Tr.  or  Household  Arts 10 

Drawing  5 

Physical  Education 2 

Music  5 

Second  Year. 

English   5 

Mathematics    5 

History  8-B  and  Gen.  Geog.  8-A 5 

Man.  Tr.  or  Household  Arts 10 

Drawing   5 

Music  2 

Physical  Education 2 

Third  Year. 

English   5 

Mathematics    5 

Man.  Tr.  or  Household  Arts 10 

Drawing   5 

Physical  Education 2 


204  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOI, 

Elect  One : 

Literature  5 

Physiography 5 

POMONA 
Intermediate  School  Course. 

Opportunity  Semester  (for  those  whose  grades  in  the 
sixth  grade  have  been  mediocre). 
Five  of  the  following,  as  needed: 
Arithmetic 
Art 

English 
Drawing 

History  and  Geography 
Home  Credit  Work 
Manual  Training 
Orchestral  Music 
Sewing 
Typing 
Vocal  Music 
First  Year— SB. 

1.  English 

2.  Latin  Beginnings  or  Spanish  Beginnings 

3.  U.  S.  History  and  Civics 

4.  5.     Two  electives  from 

Algebra  I  (i) 

Elem.  Bookkeeping  I  (i) 

General  Science  I  ( i ) 

(Includes  Dom.  Science  I) 

First  Year— 8A. 

1.  English 

2.  Latin  I  (i)  or  Spanish  I  (i)  or  Draw- 

ing I  (i) 


APPENDIX  2O5 

3, 4,  5.     Three  electives  from 
Algebra  II  (i) 
Bookkeeping  II  (i) 
General  Science  II  (i) 

(Includes  Dom.  Science  II) 
Ancient  History  I  (i) 

Second  Year — 96. 

1.  English  I  (i) 

2.  Latin  II  (i) 

Drawing  II  (i),  or  Spanish  II  (i) 

3.  4,  5.     Three  electives  from 

Algebra  I II  (i) 
Bookkeeping  III  (i) 
General  Science  III  (i) 
Domestic  Science  III  (i) 
Ancient  History  II  (i) 

Second  Year — o,A. 

1.  English  II  (i) 

2.  Latin  III  (i) 
Drawing  III  (i) 
Spanish  III  (i) 

3.  4,  5.     Three  electives  from 

Geometry  I  (i) 
Bookkeeping  IV  (i) 
Dom.  Science  IV  (i) 
Agriculture  I  ( i ) 
Manual  Training  I  (i) 
Music  I  (i) 
Algebra  I  (i) 
Ancient  History  III  (i) 
General  Science  I  (i) 


2O6  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Third  Year— loB. 

1.  English  III  (i) 

2.  Latin  IV  (i%) 
Spanish  IV  (i%) 
Mechanical  Drawing  I 
Art  I(i%) 

3.  4,  5.     Three  electives  from 

Geometry  II  (i) 
Bookkeeping  V  (i) 
Domestic  Art  V  (i) 
Agriculture  II  (i) 
Manual  Training  II  ( I ) 
Music  II  (i) 
Algebra  II  (i) 
Modern  History  IV  (i% 
General  Science  II  (i) 

Third  Year— loA. 

1.  Vocational  Guidance 

2.  Latin  V(iy2) 
Spanish  V  (iy2) 
Mechanical  Dr.  II  (i^^ 
Art  I  (i%) 

3, 4,  5.     Three  electives  from 
Geometry  III  (i) 
Bookkeeping  VI  (i) 
Domestic  Art  VI  (i) 
Agriculture  III  (i) 
Manual  Training  III  (i) 
Music  III  (i) 
Algebra  III  (i) 
Modern  History  V 
General  Science  III  (i) 


APPENDIX  2O7 

Explanation — Numerals  in  parenthesis  refer  to  the  num- 
ber of  high  school  credits  at  which  each  semester's  work  is 
valued.  Forty-five  credits  are  required  for  entrance  to  our 
junior  college  or  to  the  University  of  California  and  simi- 
lar institutions.  Twenty-four  credits  may  be  earned  in  the 
California  intermediate  school  courses  of  our  junior  high 
schools. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bibliographies : 

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674-684,  May,  1917. 

References  in  Books: 

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CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.  School  organisation  and  administra- 
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HALL,  G.  STANLEY.  Adolescence.  2  vols.  D.  Appleton 
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HALL-QUEST,  ALFRED  L.  Supervised  study.  The  Mac- 
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INGLIS,  ALEXANDER.  Principles  of  secondary  education. 
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JUDD,  CHAS.  H.  The  psychology  of  high  school  subjects. 
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PARKER,  S.  C.  Teaching  high  school  subjects.  Ginn  & 
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SNEDDEN,  DAVID.  Problems  of  secondary  education. 
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STRAYER,  GEO.  D.  Some  problems  in  city  school  admin- 
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TAYLOR,  JOSEPH  S.    A  handbook  of  vocational  education. 
The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1914. 
208 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  2OQ 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education. 

Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1912.  Vol  i, 
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Report  of  the  Commissioner,  1914.  Vol.  i.  BRIGGS,  T. 
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Report  of  the  Commissioner,  1915.  Vol  i.  DAFFEN- 
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Same.  VAN  SICKLE,  JAS.  H.  Readjustments  in  grades 
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Report  of  the  Commissioner,  1916.  Vol.  i.  BRIGGS,  T. 
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114-118. 

Bulletin  No.  4,  1907.  THORNDIKE,  E.  L.  Elimination  of 
pupils  from  the  schools. 

Bulletin  No.  5,  1911.  Age  and  grade  census  of  schools  and 
colleges  in  U.  S. 

Bulletin  No.  38,  1913.  BAKER,  JAS.  H.  Report  of  Com- 
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Bulletin  No.  41,  1913.  Report  of  the  Commission  of  the 
N.  E.  A.  on  the  reorganisation  of  secondary  educa- 
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Bulletin  No.  10,  1914.  Physical  growth  and  school 
progress. 

Bulletin  No.  8,  1916.  BUNKER,  FRANK  F.  Reorganisa- 
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Bulletin  No.  28,  1916.  Report  of  a  committee  of  the  N. 
E.  A.  on  the  social  studies  in  secondary  education. 

Bulletin  No.  2,  1917.  Report  on  reorganisation  of  English. 

Bulletin  No.  49,  1917.  Report  of  a  committee  of  the  N. 
E.  A.  on  music  in  secondary  schools. 


2IO  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

National  Education  Association  Proceedings. 

Los  Angeles,  Calif.,  meeting,  1907. 

MORRISON,  G.  B.,  et  al.    Report  of  committee  on  an  equal 

division  of  the  twelve  years.     P.  705-10. 
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year  course  of  study.    P.  625-628. 
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MORRISON,  G.  B.,  et  al.    Third  report  of  committee  on  six- 

year  course  of  study.    'P.  498-503. 
Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  meeting,  1913. 
JUDD,  C.  H.    A  seven-year  elementary  school.    P.  225-34. 
WILSON,  H.  B.,  et  al.    Report  of  the  committee  on  econ- 
omy of  time  in  elementary  and  secondary  education. 
P.  217-225. 
Oakland,  Calif.,  meeting,  1915. 

CLAXTON,  P.  P.    Organisation  of  high  schools  into  junior 

and  senior  sections.    P.  747-'8. 
WILSON,  H.  B.,  et  al.    Report  of  the  committee  on  econ- 

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New  York  City,  meeting  (also  Detroit),  1916. 

BRADFORD,  MARY.     Changes    in    the    curriculum    upper 

grades.    P.  407-'!  i. 

JOHNSTON,  C.  H.    The  junior  high  school.    P.  145-152. 
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PEARSE,  CARROLL  G.     Negative  of  the  6-6  question.     P. 


SNEDDEN,  DAVID.    Minimum  essentials  vs.  differentiated 
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965-'76. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  211 

Same.  Peculiar  psychological  conditions  and  social  needs 
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WEET,  H.  S.     First  step  in  establishing  the  6-3-3  organ- 
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Portland,  Oregon,  meeting,  1917. 

BARKER,  A.  C.  The  intermediate  school  or  junior  high 
school.  P.  266-'7i. 

BAILEY,  LAURA  C.  Library  opportunities  in  the  junior 
high  school.  P.  576-'8i. 

DEAMER,  ARTHUR.  General  or  elementary  science  in  the 
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KIRKPATRICK,  CHAS.  Vocational  content  of  the  interme- 
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PEIRSON,  MABEL  B.     Biology  in  the  intermediate  school. 

P.  538-4L 
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Cox,  PHILIP  W.  L.  Junior  high  school;  its  purposes  and 
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school  problem.    Vol.  53:  19-20.    September,  1916. 
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Oregon.    Vol.  50:  11-13,  65.     March,  1915. 
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administration.    Vol.  55:  19-20.    August,  1917. 
WHITNEY,  F.  L.     Junior  high  school  idea  in  the  small 

town.    Vol.  48:  H-I2.     March,  1914. 

AMERICAN  TEACHER. 

HART  WELL,  CHAS.  S.  Junior  high  school  for  increased 
economy  and  efficiency.  Vol.  5  :  37-39.  March,  1916 


212  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

ANNALS  OP  AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  POLITICS  AND  POLITICAL 
SCIENCE. 

BONSER,  FRED  G.    Junior  high  school  and  vocational  edu- 
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EDUCATION. 

ABELSON,  JOSEPH.  Bibliography  of  the  junior  high  school. 
Vol.  37:  122-9.  1916. 

Study  of  the  junior  high  school  project.     Vol.  37: 
1-19.  October,  1916. 

PETERS,  CHAS.  C.  What  the  grammar  school  has  a  right 
to  expect  of  the  higher  schools.  Vol.  36:  415-24. 
March,  1916. 

BRIGGS,  T.  H.  Possibilities  of  the  junior  high  school. 
Vol.  37:  279-89.  January,  1917. 

FOSTER,  J.  M.  Junior  high  school  in  villages.  Vol.  37: 
495-503-  April,  1917. 

LULL,  H.  The  six-year  high  school.  Vol.  30,  p.  75-24. 
September,  1909. 

EDUCATIONAL  ADMINISTRATION  AND  SUPERVISION. 

BONSER,  F.  G.  Democratizing  secondary  education  by 
the  6-3-3  plan.  Vol.  i :  567-76.  November,  1915. 

JOHNSTON,  CHAS.  HUGHES.    Junior  high  school  adminis- 
tration.   Vol.  2:  71-86.    February,  1916. 
Movement  toward  the  reorganization  of  secondary 
education.    Vol.  1 :  165-72.    March,  1915. 

Cox,  P.  W.  L.  Discussion  of  Mr.  Cheesman  A.  Herrick's 
criticism  of  the  junior  high  school.  Vol.  3 :  23-29. 
January,  1917. 

GILES,  J.  T.  Effect  on  first  six  grades  of  junior-senior 
high  school  organisation.  Vol.  3:  269-74.  May,  1917. 

NEWLON,  J.  H.  Need  of  a  scientific  curriculum  policy  for 
junior  and  senior  high  schools.  Vo.  3 :  253-68.  May, 
1917. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  213 

STACY,  C.  R.  Junior  high  school  movement  in  Massachu- 
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STUDY,  H.  P.  Preliminary  steps  in  organizing  a  junior 
high  school.  Vol.  3  :  339-42.  July,  1917. 

EDUCATIONAL  BI-MONTHLY. 

Hosic,  JAMES  FLEMING.    Junior  high  school.    Vol.  10: 

175-81.     December,  1915. 
EDUCATIONAL  CONFERENCE. 

STACY,  C.  R.  Bridgewater  normal  school  and  the  inter- 
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EDUCATIONAL  REVIEW. 

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SNAVELY,  GUY  E.  Junior  high  school  and  college.  Vol. 
51 :4O-9-  June,  1916. 

FLEAGLE,  F.  R.  Trade  instruction.  Vol.  52 :  456-63.  De- 
cember, 1916. 

SMITH,  C.  E.  Mathematics  in  the  junior  high  school. 
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EDUCATIONAL-JOURNAL. 

INGLIS,  A.  J.     Junior  high  school.    3 :  55-58.    April,  1917. 

Junior  high  school.     17:292-4.    January,  1917. 

Junior  high  school  at  Hudson,    Ohio.     17:    466-7. 

March,  1917. 

Junior  high  school  in  the  Hast.    18 :  2-3.    September, 

1917. 

Junior  high  school  in  the  West.    18:  3-6.    September, 

1917. 
MANGUN,  V.  L.     6-6  plan  at  Macomb,  Illinois.    Vol.  18, 

pp.  598-617.    April,  1818. 

One  motive  f.or  organising  the  junior  high  school. 

17:  379-80.    February,  1917. 


214  TIIE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  JOURNAL. 

Junior  high  school  movement.  Vol.  15  :  114-18.  Novem- 
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HORN,  P.  W.  Junior  high  school  in  Houston,  Texas. 
Vol.  16:  91-5.  October,  1915. 

LLEWELLYN,  E.  J.  6-3-3  P^an  at  Mount  Vernon,  Ind.  Vol. 
16:  508-10.  May,  1916. 

Junior  high  school  in  Lewiston,  Idaho.    Vol.  16 :  454- 
6.    May,  1916. 

TRYON,  R.  M.  History  in  the  junior  high  school.  Vol. 
16:491-507.  May,  1916. 

EDUCATOR  JOURNAL. 

HELM,  M.  P.    Junior   high    school.     Vol.    17:    353-57. 

March,  1917. 
HINES,  H.  C.    Present  status  of  the  junior  high  school. 

Vol.  17:  462-65.     May,  1917. 

GENERAL  SCIENCE  QUARTERLY. 

•CARPENTER,  H.  A.     General  science  in  the  junior  high 

school  at  Rochester,    i :  46-53.    November,  1916. 
IHARVARD  TEACHERS'  ASS'N.  LEAFLET. 

INGLIS,  A.  J.  Junior  high  school.  L.  2:  1-9.  October, 
1916. 

JOURNAL  OF  EDUCATION. 

CHAPMAN,  I.  T.  Obstacles  to  be  encountered  in  estab- 
lishment of  junior  high  school.  Vol.  83:  537-41.  May, 
18,  1916. 

GRIFFIN,  O.  B.  Junior  high  school.  84:  399-402.  Oc- 
tober, 1916. 

HARRIS,  JAMES  H.  Six-and-six  plan.  Vol.  81 :  89-91, 
102-103.  January  28,  1915. 

Junior  high  school.     Vol.  82:  342-47,  352-53.     Oc- 
tober 14,  1915. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


IXGLIS,  A.  J.     Junior  high  school.    84:  595-7.    December 

14,  1916. 
JOHNSTON,  C.  H.     Junior  high  school.    Vol.  84:91.    July, 

27,  1916. 

Rochester  and  junior  high  schools.     Vol.  83  :  377. 

April,  6,  1916. 
SCOFIELD,  F.  A.     Functions  of  the  intermediate  school. 

Vol.  79:  429-3  1. 
WESTCOTT,  R.  W.     Outside    activities    of    junior    high 

school  pupils.    85:  91-93,  104.    January  25,  1917. 
WINSHIP,  A.  E.     Junior  high  school.    Vol.  83  :  91-2.  Jan- 

uary 25,  1916. 

JOURNAL  OF  GEOGRAPHY. 

KIRCHWEY,  C.  B.     Geography  in  the  junior  high  school. 
Vol.  14:  291-4.  April  16,  1916. 

KENTUCKY  HIGH   SCHOOL  QUARTERLY. 

BAKER,  GEORGE  MARSHALL.     "Six-six."      Vol.    i  :  5-32. 

July,  1915- 

JONES,  O.  J.     Junior  high  school.    3  :  23-55.    July/  I9I7- 
LYON,  M.  E.     Junior  high  school  movement.     3  :  24-27. 

January,  1917. 
MANUAL  TRAINING. 
Advantages  of  the  junior  high  school.     Vol.    17:  640-1. 

April,  1916. 

-MATHEMATICS  TEACHER. 

GENTLEMAN,  F.  W.     Content  of  a  mathematical  course 
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MIDLAND  SCHOOLS. 

BINGAMAN,  C.  C.     Junior-senior  high  school  in  practice. 

Vol.  30:  178-80.     February,  1916. 
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40.    January,  1916. 


2l6  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

OHIO  EDUCATIONAL  MONTHLY. 
Junior' H.  S.    Vol.  65 :  390-97.    August,  1916. 
GRADY,  G.  O.     Junior  high  school.    66:  393-397.     Sep- 
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OHIO  TEACHER. 
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Vol.  35 :  248-9. 
OREGON  TEACHERS'  MONTHLY. 

RUTHERFORD,  W.  R.  Junior  high  school.  21 :  149-151. 
November,  1916. 

PEDAGOGICAL  SEMINARY. 

DOUGLASS,  AUBREY  AUGUSTUS.  Present  status  of  the 
junior  high  school.  Vol.  22:  252-74.  June,  1915. 

LAWSON,  MARY  F.  Socialisation  of  language  study  in 
the  junior  high  school.  Vol.  23 :  76-85.  March,  1916. 

SCHOOL  AND  HOME  EDUCATION. 

BAGLEY,  W.  C.  Six-six  plan.  Vol.  34:  3-5.  Septem- 
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Prof.  Judd's  criticism  of  the  eight  year  elementary 
curriculum.     Vol.  34:  212-16.     February,  1915. 
Six-six  plan  and  early  differentiation.    Vol.  34:239- 
41.     March,  1915. 

BROWN,  G.  A.  Junior  high  school.  Vol.  36:  6-8.  Sep- 
tember, 1916. 

HOLLISTER,  H.  A.  Junior  high  school.  Vol.  35:  117-20. 
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SCHOOL  REVIEW. 

INGLIS,  ALEXANDER.  A  fundamental  problem  in  the  re- 
organization of  the  high  school.  Vol.  23:  308-18. 
May,  1915. 

JUDD,  CHARLES  H.  Junior  high  school.  Vol.  23 :  25-33. 
January,  1915. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  2I/ 

Junior  high  school.  Vol.  23:  492-4.  September,  1915. 
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DAVIS,  C.  O.  Junior  high  schools  in  North  Central  Asso- 
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1918. 

MCCARTNEY,  L.  Junior  high  school.  Vol.  25  1652-8.  No- 
vember, 1917. 

ROBINSON,  F.  V.  Reorganisation  of  the  grades  and  high 
school.  Vol.  20:  665-88.  December,  1912. 

STETSON,  PAUL  C.  Statistical  study  of  scholastic  records 
of  junior  high  school  students.  Vol.  25 1617-36. 
November,  1917. 

STETSON,  PAUL  C.  Statistical  study  of  enrollment  in 
Junior  high  school.  26:  233-45. 

BAGLEY  and  JUDD.  Enlarging  the  American  elementary 
school.  Vol.  26:  313-323.  May,  1918. 

WEET,  H.  S.  Junior  high  school  (Rochester,  N.  Y.). 
Vol.  24:142-51.  February,  1916. 

SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY. 

Junior  high  school  in  New  York.  Vol.  5 :  344.  March 
24,  1917.  Same,  5:  591.  May  19,  1917. 

HAMILTON,  W.  I.  Attempt  to  define  junior  high  school. 
5:  589.  May  19,  1917. 

LODGE,  G.  Latin  in  the  junior  high  school. ,  Vol.  r:  300- 
4.  February  27,  1915. 

SIERRA  EDUCATION  NEWS. 

BENNETT,  G.  V.     Intermediate  school.    Vol.  12:  592-594. 

November,  1916. 
TEACHERS'  JOURNAL. 

NUTT,  HUBERT  W.  Reorganisation  of  the  period  of  ele- 
mentary and  secondary  education.  Vol.  15:  113-118; 
152-57.  September-October,  1915. 


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CRAIG,  R.  C.     Woodwork  for  the  junior  high  school.  Vol. 
16:  632-5.    June,  1915. 

Jr.  H.  S.  at  Trenton,  N.  J.    18:  304.    March,  1917. 
LEAVITT,  F.  M.     Six-three-three  plan.  Vol.  16,  p.  240-242. 
Miscellaneous  Reports. 
California    State    Commissioner   of    Secondary   Education. 

Reports   1914,   1915,  1916. 
Detroit,  Michigan.     Handbook  of  the  Detroit  junior  high 

schools.     Board  of  Education,  1916-7. 

Goldfield,   Iowa.     BINGAMAN,   C.    C.     Report   of  superin- 
tendent on  junior  high  schools  in  U.  S. 
Houston,    Texas.      Annual   report   of   the   public  schools. 

Board  of  Education,  1916-17. 
Illinois  State  Teachers'  Association,  1915. 

JOHNSTON,  C.  H.    Junior  high  school  administration.    P. 

116-23. 

Illinois    University,    High    School    Conference,    1916,   bul- 
letin 21,  Vol.  13. 

BARTON,  H.  J.     Latin  in  the  junior  high  school.    P.  53. 
HOLUSTER,  H.  A.     Junior  high  school  administration.    P. 

32-42. 

Iowa,   University   of,   Extension   division   bulletin   No.   25 
(first  series,  No.  6),  1916.    LEWIS,  E.  E.     Standards 
of  measuring  junior  high  schools. 
Kentucky  Educational  Association  (Louisville),  1915. 
GATTON,  HARPER.     Six-six  plan.    P.  196-99. 
HOUSTON,  T.  A.    Six-six  plan.     P.  102-6. 
Los   Angeles    (Calif.).     Annual    report  superintendent   of 

schools,  1914. 
Report  of  the  advisory  committee  to  Board  of  Education, 

1916.     P.  88-103. 
Michigan,  University  of.     Bulletin   N.   S.     Vol   17.     No. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  219 

DAVIS,  CALVIN  O.     Subject  matter  and  administration  of 

the  6-3-3  plan  of  secondary  schools. 
Middlebury   (Vermont)    College  Bulletin.     Vol.   n,  Xo.   i, 

1916. 

HOWARD,  E.  E.     Junior  high  school. 
Minnesota,  Department  of  Education.     Bulletin  59,  1916. 

PHILLIPS  and  BARNES.     Junior  high  school  problem. 
Mississippi  Teachers'  Association.     Laurel,  Miss.,  1915. 
CLAXTON,  P.   P.     (Report  of  Dr.   Claxton's  address  on 

the  6-6  plan).     P.  37-39. 

Missouri,     state     superintendent,     public     schools.     Sixty- 
sixth  report  of  public  schools  of  Missouri  for  year 
1915-16. 
Missouri     State    Normal    School     (Springfield)     Bulletin. 

Vol.  10,  p.  21-48.    October,  1915. 
HILL,  CLYDE  M.     Junior  high  school  movement. 
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of    secondary    schools,    1916.     Junior    high    school 
organization. 
New   York   City,   High   School   Teachers'   Association  of, 

bulletin  59.    January,  1916. 
ABELSON,  JOSEPH.    Bibliography  of  the  junior  high  school. 

P.  16-28. 
HARTWELL,  C.  S.     Junior  high  school  in  New  York  City. 

P.  14-16. 
New  York  State  University  Convocation.     Proceedings  of 

the  convocation,  October  19-20,  1916. 
BRIGGS,  T.   H.     Possibilities  of  the  junior  high  school. 

P.  92-103. 
North    Central    Association    of    Colleges    and    Secondary 

Schools  (Chicago),  1914. 

BROWN,  H.  E.     Suggested  plan  for  the  re-organisation 
of  the  American  high  school.    P.  17-30. 


22O  THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Proceedings  of  1916.    The  junior  high  school,  the  senior 

high  school,  and  the  junior  college.    P.  40-50;  174-92. 
Ohio   State  Teachers'   Association.      Proceedings,   August, 

1916. 

HAWKINS,  WILSON.    The  six-six  plan.    P.  355-75. 
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high  school — 1917. 
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yearbook,  1916,  part  III.     Public  School  Pub.  Co., 

Bloomington,  111. 

DOUGLASS,  A.  A.     The  junior  high  school. 
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al, tenth  annual  meeting,  bulletin  24. 
BROGAN,  W.  S.     Prevocational  schools  vs.  continuation 

schools  and  the  junior  high  school.    P.  174. 
WETZEL,  W.  A.     Junior  high  school  and  prevocational 

education.    P.  188-191. 

Southern  Education  Association  (Nashville,  Tenn.),  1913. 
FERTIG,  J.  W.     Is  not  a  six-year  elementary  course  pref- 
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annual  convention. 
WILES,  E.  P.     Junior  high  school.     Voc.  Ed.  Assn.  of 

Middle  West.    Second  Ann.  Conv.    P.  126-129. 
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I30-I35- 
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junior  high  school.    Rochester,  N.  Y.    P.  105-124. 
HILL,  C.  M.     Junior  high  school  in  Vermont.    P.  124-135. 
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1914. 

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S.  E.    Six-six  plan  of  grading.    P.  102-9. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Accessories  of  teaching 188 

Adolescence, 

education,    boy 20-23 

education,   girl 23-25 

evils 6-7 

problems   192 

Agriculture 106 

Alameda,     California 33 

6-2-4    plan 33 

Art  Courses    103 

Attendance, 

compulsory 153 

enforced 62-64 

work    156 

Aurora,  111.,  8-5  plan 32 

Ay  res'    statistics 4 

Bagley,  W.  C 38 

Baltimore  6-3-2  plan 31 

Berkeley,    Cal., 

history   courses 97 

loss  of  pupils 3 

plan  33-35 40 

problems  in  establishing  Junior 

High  School    45,  46 

Biology 101 

Board    of    Education 182 

Boston    Latin    School 31 

Buildings  and  grounds.  ..  .185,   187 

Bunker,    Frank    F 30-31 

Berkeley  plan 33-35 

Difficulties    46 

Character    development 106 

Chicago  6-yr.  H.  S 31 

Cincinnati, 

curricula   197-200 

leakage   4 

Class    advi&ers 151-2 

Class-rooms, 

accoustics 137 

conveniences    138 

heating   136 

lighting 136 

seating    136 

size    135 

ventilation    .  ..135 


Pajre 

Coffman,  L.  D 38 

Colorado    Teachers'    College.  ..  .120 

Concord,  N.  H.,  plan 32 

Cost,   additional 54-56 

Courses, 

culture 101-108 

defined 77 

differentiation   1,  38 

election    79-80 

enriched    1 

Culture  pleasures    145 

Curriculum, 

Cincinnati 197-200 

defined     77 

Detroit   201-204 

Houston    200-201 

Los  Angeles    195-197 

Pomona 204 

preliminary    considerations    78-79 

Definition  Jr.  H.  S 1 

Demands   on   public    schools.  ...      2 

Denver    survey    55 

Departmentalization    12 

Department  of  Superintendence  37-8 

Detroit    39 

curricula 201-204 

Differentiations  of  courses....!,  38 

Dramatics     106 

Dropping  out  of  school 191 

Economy  of  time 17-19,  191 

Elementary  grades, 

changes  in  subject  matter.  .70-73 
effect  of  Jr.  H.  S.  upon.  . .  .58-74 
non-essentials  eliminated.  .  .73-74 
Elementary    school   teachers, 

attitude  toward  Jr.   H.   S. ..48-50 

excellent   necessary 66-68 

English  courses   86-89 

old  English    92 

Enriched  courses  of  study 1 

Evansville,    leakage 3 

Expense,  additional 54-56 

Expression    145 

Faculties,    mental 144 


222 


INDEX 


223 


Page 

Faculty,    teaching 189-190 

duties  of 150-152 

experienced  elem.  teachers  114-118 

men  and  women 117-118 

principal   115-116 

Fitchburg,   Mass 41 

Foreign  languages    90-92 

Foundational  subjects 58 

Correct  grades  I- VI    58-60 

France,  adolescent  in 28-29 

French 90-91 

Francis,   J.    H 35-36 

Geography    107 

German   90-91 

Germany,  adolescent,  ed 26-28 

Grades, 

included  in  Jr.  H.  S 1 

methods    of   grouping 29-33 

Grand  Rapids, 

leakage  from  school....    3,   9,   12 

vocational    guidance 16 

Habits    of    industry     141-142 

Hall,  Dr.  G.  Stanley 105 

Health  and  development 143 

History   96-98,  107 

Horn,  P.  W 14 

Houston    Jr.   H.    S.    , 

buildings     38 

curricula   200-201 

effect  on  enrollment 14 

vocational   guidance 16 

Johnston 38 

Judd,  C.  H 38 

Junior  College, 

and  Sr.  H.  S 168 

courses 170,  172 

Intermediate   school 1 

Issaquah,    Wash.,    6-5    plan....    32 

Ithaca,   N.   Y.,   6-2-4  plan 32 

Junior  High  School  denned,   ....      1 

Kalamazoo    7-3-2    plan 32 

Kindergarten     60-62 

Latin    90,   92 

Leakage  from  school 3,  4 

prevented    7-14 

Lecture  method..  ..148-149 


Page 

Lewiston,  Idaho,  Jr.  H.  S 39 

Literature     104 

Location  of  Jr.  H.  S 47,  48 

Long  Beach  buildings 55-56 

Los  Angeles, 

establishment  Jr.  H.  S 45 

leakaf'C   from   school 3,   4 

original   plan 2?, 

present  plan 35,  36,  40 

vocational   guidance 16 

Macomb,    111 10 

Mangun,  V.  L 10 

Manual   training 84-86,   108 

Mathematics   93-95 

Mexican    children    3 

Moore,  Dr.  E.  C 33-35 

Moral  problems 7 

Moral     training 164-166 

Motor  skill   142 

Music     102 

National    Ed.    Asn 33-38 

debate    6-6    plan 38 

economy  of  time 37 

reorganization  sec.  ed 36-37 

New  York  City 40 

Ninth  grade  pupils, 

attitude  to  Jr.  H.  S 53,  54 

Number  of  Jr.  H.  S.  in  U.  S. .  .39,  40 

Pearse,   Carroll   G 38 

People's      College      and     Junior 

High    School     173-177 

characteristics 170 

courses 170,  172 

Philadelphia 39 

Philippine  Islands,  plan 32 

Physical    education 80-84 

Pomona, 

effect  Jr.  H.  S.  on  enrollment.    13 

elections  in  grades 45 

history    courses 97 

Jr.    H.    S.    plan 42 

vocational    guidance 16 

Population  sufficient  to  maintain 

Jr.  H.  S 181 

Practical  information 143 

Program  denned    77 

Promotion  by  subject 1 


224 


THE;  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL 


Page 

Principal  of  Jr.  H.  S 189 

clerical  work 165 

duties    157 

helping  teachers 161 

school  interruptions v .  162 

supplies 160 

Public  conservatism 56 

Purposefulness 145 

Rahway,   N.   Y.,   5-3-3   plan ....    32 

Recitation    146-149 

Richmond,   Va.,   plan    41 

Rochester   41 

Saginaw,   Mich.,  6-6  plan 31 

Salt  Lake  City    39 

Saving  time 17,  19,  191 

Schedule 154 

Science 98-101,  107 

Selma,  Ala.,  7-5  plan 32 

Senior  High  School,  167  et.  seq., 

and  tenth  grade 167 

and  Junior  college 168 

Sense  training 142 

Session,  all-year 64-66 

Shields,   Albert    36 

Snedden,  David   38 

Spanish    90,  91 

St.   Paul    39 

Start  in  life 5,  6,  17-19 

Stetson,  Paul  C 9 

Student    organizations    ....  158-160 
Superintendent 152,  183 


Page 

Supervised  study 68,  146,  155 

Supervision  by 

superintendent     152 

supervisors     152 

vocational   adviser    153 

Teachers   for  Jr.   H.   S., 

college   trained 50 

college  vs.  normal 118 

duty  to  publish 125 

heads  of  depts 128 

lesson-plans   134 

men  vs.  women   117 

organizations 123 

self-examination    132 

study  pupils    133 

teachers'  college   120 

Text-books, 

adaptation    140 

English 139 

high  school  not  suitable 138 

Thorndike's  statistics 3,  4 

University  and  secondary  ed.    .  .  175 

Vermont    40 

Vocational  courses 108-113 

Vocational  education   35,  172 

Vocational  guidance,  4,  5,  14,  16,  45, 
153,  191. 

Vocational  tendencies 158 

Wealth  of  community   support- 
ing Jr.  H.  S 181 

Wilson,  H.  B 87 


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